The old order of things has passed away

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

-Revelation 21:1-4

There is a 62-year-old woman who is my client, and my friend, let's call her Georgia, and she doesn't know how to read. She loves the Bible (Hallelujah!) so I'm teaching her to read Psalms (Amen!) and I decide to show her Revelation 21. So we read, slowly, stumbling over first, earth, Jerusalem, bride. The first time through Georgia confuses them and they, live and like, heaven and holy. It's harder than I thought it would be, takes us about 10 minutes to get through the 4 verses. So I say, OK, I'll read it through one time, and then you'll do it again. I read slowly as she points to the words, and when I get to verse 4 Georgia is just whispering every word along with me. I finish and we look at each other, in silence. There are still tears on earth so we're almost crying it's so beautiful, and she shakes her head. "Katie, thank you for showing me this one."

Today she tells me something I don't know: "Way back in the seventies, I had twin baby girls, and I lost them. Katie, my mother told me that some day I would understand why." Georgia lost her mother, her role model and best friend, 4 years ago. "My mother told me, look at you a single black woman on welfare, you already have one child. Maybe God has a reason for everything." Georgia's other child, a son, is now in prison for life. "And when my son started going with the wrong crowd, and got locked up, she told me, everything's going to be OK." The old order will be gone. The pain will be gone. Her sins and the sins of her son will be gone.

I ask Georgia to read the passage one more time. She reads slowly, but this time she only needs help with holy and throne. When she gets to the end she holds her hand up to the sky, to God, and says "Amen."

Normally when we finish reading a passage I ask comprehension questions. I think she already understands this one far more than I do.