These words are spoken by the 24 elders who have just thrown down their crowns as an act of worship. They are bowing down, laying prostrate before God’s throne.
When we come into the Presence of God our response will be the same, on our face. The crowns cast down weren’t really earned because they’re a gift to us from God, crowns of life, eternal life. This is also called a victor’s crown. We don’t earn these. Eternal life is a gift. We cannot earn it.
As we live our lives I’ve heard many talking about earning jewels for their crown. The conversations I hear around earning another jewel in their crown seem a bit selfish and prideful. There’s no Biblical reference for earning jewels in our crowns or making our crown of life more beautiful for us to walk around and flaunt.
Crowns are granted to us so they can be given away to God. In His Presence we will realize we are nothing and God is deserving of everything. We will want to give God all we have and all we are! There’s no other appropriate response! On their faces the elders speak powerful words of worship. God is worthy! We wouldn’t even exist without God’s act of creation!
If we are living life towards a goal of wearing our own crown we’ve got it all wrong. Our crowns will be the only thing we’ll have left to give to God in that moment. We’ll be in a different world where what people think matters here won’t matter anymore. What truly matters while we are still here is that we already belong to this other world and we need to love and live like it.
The road of the believer is narrow and small. It’s rocky and uphill. God walks with us. We’ll make it and receive our crowns at the end of this race but they’re not to wear. They’re for us to cast down before God in worship. We can worship God even now in our lifestyle. As the elders say here, God is worthy!
Jeni Martin Johnson 
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