I have been thinking about heaven a lot lately. Everytime someone famous dies, my mind drifts to the matter of the first few moments after we stop breathing. When Norman Brinker or David Carradine breathed their last, what were the next thirty seconds like? Unspeakable joy? Unholy terror? Noisy? Quiet? Colorful?I seem to remember that CS Lewis said that our first words upon arriving in heaven will be "Of course!". That resonated with me last night as I tried to convince my eight-year-old son that heaven will be great. He is stuck on the notion that we will simply sing to Jesus in one big white-robed conga line for all eternity. And I must confess that this concept of heaven does not sound all that intriguing.
But as I read the end of revelation and think about heaven, I wonder if language is not sufficient to capture what awaits those that God has redeemed. Maybe our imaginations are simply to finite to understand the beauty of absolute perfection. Jesus talked more about hell than heaven. I think he did that probably because heaven is just to much for our little brains to comprehend.
John Piper says that the greatest thing about heaven will be that God will be there. We will experience God in all of His endless glory and perfection and joy and love. And we will be His people and He will be our God for eternity. And Jesus will have prepared a place for me. And I will have a newname that is special and specific to me. And I will see His face. And His Name will be on my forehead. And I will drink from the spring of the water of Life without payment.
Forever.
And that sounds a lot better than a conga line.....
1 comment:
Amen. Great post! Deep thoughts for an eight year old. I've thought the same thing before, "if all we're going to do is kneel down and sing to God all day, that sounds pretty boring". Piper also said, "Part of what makes “eternal life” satisfying (and not boring) forever is that it will take an eternity for perfect, finite creatures like us to know God fully. He is perfect and infinite. We will be perfect and finite. He will enjoy increasing revelation of himself, and we will enjoy increasing jubilation in him—forever. "
I'm with you, I don't think our minds can comprehend the glory and accompanying joy of heaven as we are. But I can look to how great our God is, the gifts he blesses us with now, and imagine that the joy we experience now is not comparable to what we will then know (joy unspeakable indeed!).
Amen, great post.
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