John, the apocalypcist, envisions the saints of God robed in white standing before the throne of God offering worship and praise. But that isn’t the only place that God’s saints may be found, as Lesbia Scott reminds us (Hymn #293, Hymnal 1982):

“I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true, who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew. And one was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green; they were all of them saints of God—and I mean, God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear, and his love made them strong; and they followed the right for Jesus’ sake the whole of their good lives long. And one was a soldier, and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast; and there’s not any reason, no not the least, why I shouldn’t be one too.

They lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds of thousands still, The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will. You can meet them in schools, or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops or at tea, for the saints of God are just folks like me, and I mean to be one too.”

When we choose to join with all the saints of God, those who have gone before and those around us now, accepting our roles as children of God, John, the epistler, assure us: “. . .when [God] is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope purify themselves, as he is pure.”