Imagining the End as the Beginning

Can you imagine it? Arriving in heaven. When the day comes, and our broken eyes with their dim sight cease to look upon a damaged world but rather unimagined beauty, a reality beyond our present reckoning.

I have. 

I have. 

I imagine it will feel like present waking. The few moments when consciousness grows and casts aside the wistful happenings of our vivid dreams. Of course, our lives will be the fading thing--our regrets, our pain, and our disappointments.  A life's worth of hurt will be washed away by a flood of new reality.

And then I'll see Him.

Him.

The one to whom I called in the darkness. The one to whom I owe my life. The one to whom I've come to rest. He'll invite me to sit on a bench of stone amidst a garden of cloud and wonder. He'll smile at me to assure me it's real. It's truly happened. I've arrived. I'm alive, about to begin an eternal journey, one for which I was destined since before time began.

But before I leap into my new life unending, he bids me come to sit and speak.

I have no words. I have no lips. I need neither. My soul speaks freely by an unknown means. Without the confines of language and caution, I communicate unbound. Tears--in whatever form they take--flow in rapturous joy and unrestrained worship.

In truth, I cannot believe I'm here. I cannot fathom that the time has come. It seemed long--the wait til now, yet I cannot remember the stuff of it, just the longing finally met, the satisfaction of "well done".

I must be standing. He bids me sit. And when I do, he touches me, however souls make contact there. It's a gesture of welcome and further assurance, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. And so had he has been for many years, though I failed so oft to love him well. He stood beside, remaining long, abiding while I looked away or sidestepped right or left his side. He remained, ever true. Never failing, ever sure.

And I now I'm here. No sin to chide me, to pull me hither or entice.

Tis he and I alone for a time, before We join his Holy host. All I can think to say is "sorry", to beg forgiveness for crimes forgotten, to seek absolution I've already received. He stops me quickly, rebukes me gently, no longer need I bear such thoughts. My faith was sure. My hope is secured. One end has come but borne a bright new beginning.

Then I will break in a new sort of way, when the truth of his presence finally strikes to the full. And I fall to my knees, no thought beyond gratitude, no expression beyond thanks and thanks again and still more.

Millennia pass as this outpouring comes, a surging flood of all I have--my longing, my praise, and all my love. And when I pause--but for an instant--a voice speaks gently into me, and I know it is time for the glorious journey, for my life to appear as it been held in waiting, ever-sinless, restored in full.

The gates beyond the garden open; widely swing the doors of grace. I pass through them to infinite pleasures, seeing glory all my days...

Can you imagine it? 

I have. 

Do you ever try? Why not? Give yourself a moment to be captivated by hope, then live life with the knowledge something far greater is coming--something beyond finite imagination. Something divine, without hindrance or barrier. Something so pure it cannot be known now. 

That is future for those in Christ. That is the truth for those in his hands. And that is the reason to live well and love better, because all that is coming will surpass all that's been.

May The Lord see you all to His side, in his kingdom, and for his glory, 

Amen.

Heaven: Old Opinions and Present Anticipation

About six months ago, I did a series expressing some thoughts about heaven, but I must be honest, dear readers, I did not always look toward heaven as the desirable destination about which I wrote. 

For much of life I simply had no interest in heaven. I figured I couldn't know anything about it, really, so why bother thinking of it at all. I also did not consider it as pertinent to my present walk with the Lord, so I figured I ought not bother studying it. At one point, I even thought I would be bored there. 

Looking back on my attitudes, however, I know that those reasons were smokescreens. The truth in my heart was far more convicting than the shallowness of youth. The truth is that I did not love God more than the world. I did not want to be with God, in the presence of God, communing directly with God if it was going to cost me the world.

I'd like to attribute this to youthful ignorance, but I feel that's far too gracious. I know that worldly pleasures drew my attention: the sex thing, the possessions thing, the arts, the family, the middle class things. I simply valued all of these earthly goods as more glorious than God himself. I considered earth my true home and heaven a nice icing on the cake of existence.

And I had it all backwards. Even writing this post, I feel embarrassed. To view the earth and its pleasantries as more more valuable than God is to have no perception of God. A god that is not more attractive than the temporal pleasures of this material place is a small god, indeed (and certainly not the one I worship).

GOD, on the other hand, is someone else entirely. In light of who he is, this earth looks less attractive. If the choice is between God and a lifetime of self-indulgence, then I will refrain from everything I must in order to gain the former. This is GOD about whom I'm writing. GOD. The maker, the sustainer, the overseer of all life. GOD is so much bigger than this place with its present happiness and partial glory. He is the source of joy and the fullness of glory.

Still, I am looking toward experiences in this life with anticipation: eventually having a child (or more than one), watching and celebrating the success of those I love, and finishing my second novel. Toward all of these things I look with hope, but they pale in comparison to my longing toward heaven, toward seeing that Throne of Grace, toward kneeling my forehead on the ground before God and keeping it there for a million years of joyful crying and inexpressible peace and joy. Oh, how I pine for that day! I cannot imagine the satisfaction of seeing Jesus face to face--better is one day in his court.

That being said, if your mindset is as mine was for so much of my life, if you are enjoying the things of this world more than your are looking toward your reward with God, I encourage you to seek His face in the Scripture, speak to him through prayer, long for him through fasting. Cultivate daily communion with him. You will come to live your present existence in light of knowing he is near, and over time, you will get to a point wherein you say, "Oh Lord, this taste of your glory is SO GOOD, that I want nothing more than being nearer to you, as near as I can be, in your heavenly kingdom. Until that time, I savor you here and wait with great anticipation for you to bring me home."

You can get there. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Of course, we all know that the Scriptures provide a wonderful picture of who God is. Below are a few passages that I’ve memorized to that effect, and they are merely the tip of a very large iceberg provided in the Holy Bible:

Hosea 6:6

Joel 2:11-13

I John 4:1-21

A Week in Heaven: 5 Thoughts Revisited

All this week, I have done a series of musings on heaven. Below I sum up all 5 days very briefly while linking back to each. 

1) I know that we as Christians have assurance of our salvation, but the assurance of something and the fulfillment of it are wholly different things. When I first arrive in Heaven, I believe I will spend the first million or so years expressing my thanks and praise and joy just for finally being there.

2) In heaven, I believe Christians will enjoy food, fellowship, and functionality together. Based on my personal reading of Scripture and understanding of God's purposes (inasmuch as I can understand them, anyway), I feel that these facets of life on earth may, in some fashion, transfer to heaven.

3) Heaven may be beyond earth and hell; but will we still see the material universe as we know it? Would we even want to?

4) Some thoughts of heaven outside the usual box: Is it possible that we could encounter beings from other planets, creatures we have never imagined, or moments of reconciliation we did not expect.

5) The Bible itself must be our source for our beliefs and expectations about heaven, and it has much to say. Here are a few things.

All that being said, and it must have been plenty considering it took a whole week, I want to end this series with two verses:

The first I leave as something of a critique against any human ideas about heaven (mine included). We are told in Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth,

But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of men imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him'.

The Bible has given us some concepts, but we humans tend to be gap-fillers, and as such we have developed our own expectations about what is coming in heaven. Just so we're all clear, the Bible assures us that heaven is beyond human conception. We cannot put it into a box of what it may or may not include. We cannot demand that it feature this or that. We simply are incapable of knowing how good it truly is.

But let's be honest. Looking toward heaven and imagining what could be there is a joyful exercise. I will certainly admit that. I've dedicated the whole week on the blog to it. But we must not focus on the future at the expense of the present. We have another, more pressing task ahead of us. As Paul told the church in his letter to the Philippians,

For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

Christians, for now, while we are here, let us live in fruitful labor. Let us do good. Let us seek to grow in kindness and mercy. Let us love unabashedly and give radically. Let us labor in such a way as to God and not to earthly pleasures or comforts or even supposed needs. All these will be met by the Lord in his time. Our call is to labor; our rest is to come. To my non-Christian readers, I hope that my sentiments about The Great Destination, a place with God, has been a place in which you're interested--not for its sake but because of God himself. If you have any desire to go to heaven, but you do not know what that means, please e-mail me immediately, and I will gladly dialog with you about this very subject. Your finding this blog was not by happenstance, and your desire to ultimately be by God's side is a powerful longing, one that I would love to discuss with you further.

Thanks all for stopping here more often this week. My hope is that this series has made you more anticipatory for heaven and greater fellowship with God himself. If that was not the result, than I have failed you, but please do not let my shortcomings as a writer deter you from gaining a renewed and joyous hope for heaven and all that it may entail!
C

A Week in Heaven: What the Bible says, which is better than what I said

This week, I have been reflecting on heaven. I have considered how I might spend my initial time before the Throne of God and how some aspects of life on earth may be echoed in heaven. I also mused briefly on heaven's relationship to earth and provided some other random ideas about surprises in heaven. Today, I get down to brass tacs.

After all my brainstorming this week, I thought I should bring us back to something more concrete than my musings. Below are some clear conclusions we can draw about heaven, directly from the Scriptures:

John 14:1-2
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?"
Heaven is a place of many "rooms", prepared by Christ himself for his bride, the church. Please note my language here. I am neither saying that Christ is preparing individual, cookie-cutter homes for each Christian person, nor am I am implying that we will have our own little kingdoms. We only know that a number of unique places will exist in heaven, prepared by Christ himself. What they will be exactly, I do not know; but believers can be assured that if Christ is preparing them, they will be perfect.

Philippians 1:21-23 
"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."
2 Corinthians 5:8
"Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."
Heaven is far better than earth, a place where those who believe will be home. I know that over the course of my life, I have felt like I was not meant for this world any longer, that my joy was not in earthly things, that my hope was not here but elsewhere--still I feel that very thing, more often than I ever expected. For the believer, heaven is a destination for which to yearn, a place to be with Christ; and I am assured more and more each day, that such a place is better than this one, if for no other reason than its enabling more abundant fellowship with God himself.

Luke 23:34
"And [Jesus] said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise'."
This is my single favorite verse about heaven in all of Scripture. If I were to boil all my thoughts about the afterlife for the believer into one thought, it would be simply this. "Christ called heaven, 'Paradise'." If Christ himself refers to a place as paradise, then surely it must be a grand place, indeed. His standards are beyond any standard we can imagine; his view of beauty is higher than any human's. Christ would know when something is not only good but great, and when he describes heaven as "paradise", my longing for that future destination deepens further.

And from what I glean from Scriptures, the heaven to which the dead go now, the paradise of which Christ speaks, is merely the beginning...

2 Peter 3:13 
"But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness dwells."
Revelations 21:1
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more."

And what is that new heaven going to be...

Revelations 21:3-4
"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
Revelations 22:1-5
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city: also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever." 

So be it.

A Week in Heaven: Letting my Imagination Run Wild

Today I explore some other ideas regarding heaven, and this is a bit of a doozy...

Okay folks, here it goes. I am going crazy now. If you have been tracking with me throughout the week, this will likely be the day when you say, "Okay, he is a loon. His conjecture before was fun, but this crosses a line into insanity." As is my custom, let me give you yet another disclaimer. These are ideas, nothing more. They are not even beliefs. I am not saying below, "I think heaven will be like X". I know I did that here, here, and kind of here, but I am not doing that today. Today, I am just having a little bit of writer's brainstorming and asking the question "is it possible?" Not "likely", not even "based in an obscure Scripture reference". Today, I am simply pitching ideas that have arisen in conversation and been food for thought, and I felt them worth sharing. So, please read them with a grain of salt.

1) We are not alone.  I know that I am about to leave church tradition here, but I am going to propose something both wild and yet, not so wild at all. What if, over the course of the entire universe, God, in his infinitude and majesty, is replaying the entire passion history over and over and over across countless worlds, with countless peoples, all in the same natural universe, all with the same problems, all with the same sin and need for redemption. And what if those worlds will never meet in this present existence but will all culminate into an even larger intergalactic family of Christ when all was said and done. What if the "little green men" were all endowed with the reasoning and understanding capacities of God's image, and all peoples were together in one accord before his throne? Sounds like some kind of party to me.

2) Amends will be made within the family of God. I know that once we get to heaven, we will not harbor the wrongs done to us on earth, and we may not even remember the wrongs we did others. However, a certain beauty exists in the transaction of reconciliation; and let's be fair, many of us will leave earth with unresolved hurts--done to us and done by us. What if an aspect of eternal love, worship, and unity involves the reuniting of brothers and sisters of the faith who have hurt one another but never made amends on earth? What if, in heaven, they have the opportunity to assure each of their longstanding forgiveness and love? I would cherish the opportunity to reconnect with those who have hurt me but who I cannot find on this side of things, affirm that I have forgiven them, and assure them of my joy over seeing them. Likewise, I think of those who I wounded but with whom I have lost contact, and our need for reconciliation. I imagine our sitting together on a porch overlooking fields of grain, drinking a beverage so good it could not exist in the fallen world, and our conversing about our lives in light of truth. Strange thing, I think we will have this eternal love for each regardless, but something about the acts of forgiving and being forgiven seems like something we could do up there.

3) The cherubim and seraphim were just the beginning. At various points in the Scripture, individuals have had visions before God's throne, and they have seen things there that sound confusing but also awesome. I wonder if there will be even greater, more unique creatures than these. Anyone who knows me knows I love mythical creatures like the unicorn, the pegasus, and of course the griffon (my number one draft pick for greatest composite creature, ever), but I wonder if heaven will offer us creatures that we never could have imagined here on earth.

How bout you? Any crazy ideas you've had about The Great Destination?

A Week in Heaven: Quick Sojourns Back

Today I continue my series on musings and ideas about heaven. Monday I wrote in regards to how I think I would spend my initial time there. Yesterday I spent time discussing some elements of present existence that may also occur in a heavenly existence. Today, I explore some thoughts of heaven in relation to returning to earth. 

Will we see the earth from heaven? Like the view from the moon, will we be able to look upon the blue and green marble resting in the deep black expanse? Will we see hell? Will we see justice enacted, eternally? If we could look on them, would we even bother? Or, if we did, how well would we see them? What if we saw the earth as we see distant planets now-- another world amongst millions of worlds in which God may be watching, moving, and working? What if hell was somewhere in the distant haze, and we knew it existed but God alone bore the sight of it?

What if heaven exists just beyond the known universe, on some other plain, wherein its borders meet that of the natural world? What if, in heaven, we walk to a shoreline of soft turf and overlook the great expanse of the ever-reaching universe in all its wonder and brilliance--not as the sky above us but as a sea before us. At present, we look upward to see the great spread of space, but what if, from heaven's perspective, it is not to the sky we look but to an ocean of stars and an abyss of black that boasts wondrous celestial bodies. And what if one could jump into this sea and swim (or fly) through nebulae or galaxies?

Do you ever wonder how the angels passed from the heavenly realm to this one? Is their a portal or door? Are human souls ever put to the same tasks, do you think? Are we "stuck" in heaven once we arrive? Are we free to go where we please? And again, I ask, would you want to?

I am sure that if the possibility existed to leave heaven to return to earth or to explore the natural universe, I would eventually take advantage, even if for curiosity's sake alone. But here's the weird thing (and you probably gleaned this from the brevity of this post), I  don't really give it a great deal of thought. I ask questions like the ones above, and I think about the possibilities. In fact, I once heard John Piper claim that during eternity, the universe would be our playground. The sentiment is very neat, I think; but I don't linger on it. Inasmuch as I find the universe to be beautiful, inasmuch as I enjoy the earth, I don't feel like I am going to miss this world once I hit the other. I cannot imagine having a great desire to leave God's throne once I reach it. As my relationship with the Lord deepens, my longing to be near him and stay near him increases. Once I am actually there, directly before his throne, I am unsure I will want to be anywhere else.

How bout you?

A Week in Heaven: Echoes from Life on Earth

This is the second in a series of posts about heaven that I will be presenting this week. The first was posted yesterday, here.

Have you ever seen those shirts, "If they don't have [insert pleasure] in heaven, then I'm not going?" I find these to be preposterous (probably as preposterous as those wearing the shirts actually find the idea of heaven to be). Heaven is so incredibly better than any human mind can imagine. Believers there are with God forever, in his presence, without sin or brokenness, living an existence of worship and exaltation to their Creator. Heaven is wonderful in ways I cannot fathom.

Despite knowing this, however, I wonder what life is like in heaven. One popular view (that I believe is wholly inaccurate) is that of walking on clouds alongside angels whilst playing harps.  Frankly, I find this notion to be compelling to few individuals, and of those few, only a percentage are Christian. Rather, I believe that heaven contains many "echoes of earth", not the least of which being food, fellowship, and function. I use this third term carefully, both for the purposes of alliteration (which I enjoy despite claims that is "lazy") and definition (which I will further discuss later).

I will speak to each of these matters with some detail, but let me first stress that I am not a schooled Theologian but a layperson who loves Christ deeply and sincerely. I put no intellectual stake in these proposals less their being ideas and concepts (not concrete conclusions), drawn less from exegesis of Greek and Hebrew texts than from overall literary analysis of the biblical canon and universal human experience. Should these ideas be wrong (and they likely are), heaven would be no less wonderful. In fact, despite my lack of official training, I am certain that whatever heaven entails is greater than anything I might suggest or propose. That being said, here are some things that I expect in some form or manner (oh, and in these descriptions I will be changing my verb tense to the future tense rather than the present since those reading this are looking toward heaven not experiencing it in the present).

I think that food is a regular part of heaven. The Bible has a great deal to say about food. Dietary laws, annual feasts, last suppers, mass feedings, fruits of the spirit, reaping harvest, speeches of hunger and thirst--these seem to be something of a motif throughout the canon of Scripture. Food is the fuel for our bodies, and our bodies are the last physical entities God directly created in the Old Testament. Our bodies are also the temples of the Holy Spirit in the New Testamant. Food is also universal to all peoples and is a source of joy and pleasure when it is obtained at need. While I don't believe we will have the same bodies in eternity that we have on earth, I believe that we will have some form of being, and I believe that some type of food for that form will be a component of heavenly life. I also believe that this food will be limited in two very good ways. First, food will be available in abundance, and second, food will be consumed in balance. I believe that we will have a great amount of food on which to feast while in heaven, that food will be more delicious than we could possibly imagine and more delectable than even Tolkien could describe. All will eat to their fill and with great pleasure, but this abundance will be shared correctly; persons in heaven will eat in balance--without sin, without greed, and without gluttony.  While we eat to our fill, we will not eat a morsel beyond it. I don't believe we will all selfishly want to vie for the last biscuit or use false modesty to offer the last piece of cheese when we in fact want it for ourselves (cause let's face facts, we've all been guilty of both of these things at some point). None will go hungry at the expense of another's hoarding. No, in heaven, our eating will be without sin or selfishness. We will be glad to share. Will it be vegan? I don't know, but if it is, it will be the best. Will we all eat together at every meal? I doubt it, but if we do, it will make for some wonderful parties. Will God eat? That is a great mystery, but I think so, if for no other reason than to create another point of connection between us and himself. Oh, and because I gather at least one person is wondering, I believe that we will process this food wholly and have no need of restrooms or relieving ourselves =).

I also believe and hope that fellowship will be a large part of heaven, both with God and with others. Frankly, I look forward to connection with others less than with God, but I still anticipate the former level of relationship with great expectation. My guess is that we'll be able to sit and talk without the constraints of time or fear or weather or exhaustion. Christian siblings will simply be able to enjoy each other unabashedly, in a way that they'll never know here. But what will we talk about? Well, I've considered that also, but I am unsure. I believe that we'll have similar conversations to those we've had here on earth, but we will have those conversations in light of the fullness of truth. For example, we may remember a time of great sorrow, but we will also recognize with more clarity God's hand in that event--so that our discussion of it will be without pain, regret, or sorrow but rather in joy and exultation to Christ over the ways in which he was working in it. I believe we will be able to speak about things knowing not necessarily the fullness of them but the truth of them--so we may not know every facet of the hummingbird's life, but we will recognize the creature as God's handiwork, designed with purpose, to accomplish specific things, and we will love God for it all the more. I also believe that we will have expression in light of truth, in that we will be able to express what we mean clearly and without hiddenness and without misunderstanding. We will say what we intend to say in the manner in which we mean to say it, and we will be heard and understood. Our thoughts and words, of course, will also be without sin--our words will encourage, glorify God, and deepen relationship. Let's be honest, communication on earth is something of a mess. In heaven, this will not be the case. I believe we will be able to spend time together in light of knowing full well who God is, who we are, and having no baggage, only love and a desire to exalt Christ. How marvelous!

Finally, I believe that each person will also serve functions in our heavenly, non-earthly life. Now, this is not toil or labor for wages. On the contrary, I think that heaven will be free of money and, if any economy were to exist, not that it would be needed, it would be a giving-based resource economy free of profits, deadlines, overhead, royalties or residuals. What I mean to say, is that in heaven, I believe that people will have roles, roles they are exuberant to have, roles without stress, roles without busywork, roles for which they are wholly suited and will wholly fulfill. No one will have need, and we will all be content, but I believe people will still create art and goods and meals and gardens and works simply out of the sheer pleasure of doing so. We will simply be able to do it at our leisure, to God's glory, drawing our pleasure from his allowing us to be active and productive, from his enabling us to complete things, and from his enjoying our efforts. I believe that people will be able to create and build and design and realize projects and give their works away without any thought of self and desire for compensation. We will "do" simply for the joy of "doing", in God's presence and to his glory.

What if you could walk through the heavenly spaces and meet a fellow believer you have never seen, and you could talk with them for a thousand years and learn a great deal of one another by sharing your stories of God's glory, grace, and faithfulness--bringing you both even closer to God even as you are brought closer to one another; and what if you could part ways without awkwardness or sorrow, knowing that at any time you could reconnect and take as much pleasure in one another as you had already, for any given amount of time? Even better, what if Christ introduced you? What if he took a man born in Syria in 3200 B.C. and introduced him to a Canadian in 1996 and simply said to them, "I think you two have a great deal to discuss.", and they did--without language barriers, without skepticism or caution, without pretense or self-importance. They could simply meet and love each other well and love Christ more for bringing them together as brothers. That sounds heavenly to me.

Or what if, in heaven, you could take a millenium to master an instrument, and someone who loves to teach could spend those years teaching you; and someone who loves to build instruments could build one for you to play, perhaps not to own, but to enjoy along with everyone else in all of heaven; and what if everyone in that scenario did their best because God is their witness and they are finally and truly doing everything to his glory. No money changes hands. No practices run too long or too short. No one feels neglected, unappreciated, undervalued, or unimportant. We will have patience to learn well (and teach well) and create together, for glorious, majestic worship of one who is worthy. Yeah, I long for that, too.

I really don't know if anything I am suggesting will be part of the perfect equation. I honestly don't, but I know that God is good, and I truly believe this earth and the fellowship, food, and functionality we enjoy in the present will have some bearing on our existence in eternity. I realize that each of these thoughts creates with it another million-or-so questions. In fact, I think that is part of my purpose in writing these posts--to stimulate one's mind to think of what heaven might be, what it might mean, and why it is such a destination toward which we can look so passionately. As long as Christ is there, I will be eternally alive and grateful. That is a given.

What "Echoes of Earth" do you think we will we encounter in heaven? Please share, as I am always hoping to increase my own vision for that place!

A Week in Heaven: The First Million Years

A few weeks ago, I shared some thoughts on heaven, and having taken great delight in that post, I thought it may be worth spending more time on the subject in 2013. Each day this week, I will post an article with a few thoughts on the topic of heaven and my ideas, hopes, and expectations about it. I hope my reflections will be as pleasant for you to read as they have been for me to write.

As a Christian, I believe heaven to be a real place. While certainly not material nor discernible by our present scientific instruments, I believe that heaven exists in grandeur and magnificence far beyond anything our feeble minds can comprehend. I believe heaven is the place wherein God dwells in a visible form, along with those whose souls have passed from this material realm into the solely ethereal one; and I believe that upon my passing, I will be invited into this location, not by virtue of my own merit but due to my deeply-held and desperate belief in Christ Jesus as the Son of God and my personal savior, who came to earth as a human being to die so that many other human beings, unable to know God of their own accord, would be rescued from their own depravity, adopted into God's family, and brought into eternal communion with him. That is a large statement to deconstruct, and I won't do so here, but I wanted to assure the reader from where my hope comes in Christ. I don't believe heaven is the imminent end for all human beings, nor do I believe that is a place within myself (despite the popularity of both of these beliefs in our culture).

That being said, I have often thought of what I would do when I first arrive in heaven. I have had many thoughts about this over the course of my life, and my past conclusions were often silly or selfish, a category into which my current belief may also fall given time. Nevertheless, I shall share it.

When I first arrive in heaven, I believe I will spend the first million or so years simply kneeled at the feet of God, at his throne, in joyous and rapturous tears, overcome with gratitude to find myself there in front of Him. I know that Christians have assurance that if our repentance is real (a fact only God can judge), we are God's children, but in our present lives we still contend with fear and doubt. While on earth, we are trapped in conflict, and as near to Christ as we can be in the present, we are still separate from him in a sense. When first arriving in heaven, knowing that I am finally home--that my life was neither fruitless nor lived in vain, that I was not simply matter but soul, that justice is an ultimate reality that will be secured--having final, confirmed assurance that I am there, right there, that is my greatest hope and longing; and frankly, I really think it will take a million years or more just to express my thanks and praise and joy at my arriving.

I cannot express the deep peace I feel simply writing about that coming experience. Being in heaven, being with God, I am certain that I will lose sense of time--if there will even be such a thing (which I know by asking makes this whole post kind of silly--didn't I say something to that effect at the beginning?). To consider the fact that I will be in God's full presence--without my sin or my fallenness keeping me at any distance from him--well, just fills me with jubilant expectation. I can think of nothing more exciting or more valuable to desire. A deeper more direct relationship with God is what I want most in my existence; and when I have it, finally assured without separation, I will be eternally grateful, and I will spend a good deal of effort showing that gratitude (whether or not time exists). I could re-write those sentiments another dozen times with ever-more flowery language, but I will refrain for now and simply leave you with a question. If you believe you are going to heaven, what will be the first thing you will hope/expect to do upon arrival?

Tomorrow, I will discuss another aspect of my expectation for heaven, related not only to my relationship with God but with others.

Heaven at a glance

So, this morning, I was going to share some quick thoughts about my anticipation and expectations of heaven and eternity; but I realized my "little post" for Monday was becoming cumbersome and broad and thus undermining its very purpose (that's what I get for not seeing the irony of writing a short post about eternal things). Therefore, I abandoned this first plan in favor of a second, which I hope will prove just as encouraging and require only a fraction of space. I'm simply going to ask a question and respond to it briefly, in a typical three-point fashion, as a taste of things to come.

Do you ever think about heaven? I think about heaven all the time. Not more often than I should, for my thoughts of heaven do not come at the expense of the present, but I still think about that eternal existence regularly. At times I think in the strangest of ways (or maybe not the strangest of ways), but each time that I reflect on a place with God in full view, without separation and fallenness, I am overwhelmed with three reactions, and my mind is usually cleared of whatever noise is filling it at the time. My focus becomes clear, and I am renewed.

Those three things that pull my attention are as follows. First, I desperately and fully want to be in that place, not by my own hand of course but at the Lord's behest when he sees fit to call me forth to Himself. Second, I lament for those who do not believe, who either are apathetic or averse to the existence of heaven at all. I lament not only for their loss of heaven itself but their missing the experience of desiring it. I have lived my whole life within a Christian cultural context, and heaven has always been an idea within that society, but it did not become real to me until later in my years, and once it became more of an imminent reality than a concept, the expectation became so great that I could not fathom waking each day without it. Third, and finally, I am full of gratitude to God for being who he is. When I think of heaven, I am full thanks and awe--not only for what is to come but for what has come already and not only for what God has done but for who God is, perfect and hoy and true.

Oh, and a fourth thing, of course, also comes to mind when I think about heaven. I recall the words of the Apostle Paul, which he spoke in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:19):

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

How true. How unbearably true. How wasted and foolish my days have been if they are spent only to a false ideology of service and self-denial rather than a living God.

To be honest, I do not have full knowledge of what heaven will be; no man does, but I do have a hope that is grand and wonderful and full--yet only a dim echo of what heaven will actually be.

Do you think about heaven? Please comment. I would love to know what the thought of it does for you.

Thanks for reading,
C