Thanks to those of you who chimed in on my "Question." I've been really interested to hear what others have to say about that. I think I have an uncharacteristic (for my age/generation) longing for heaven. I don't think that any other believer would deny that they look forward to heaven. But in others my age, I don't see the "I just can't wait!" feeling that I have. I readily admit, however, that I don't do the feeling justice; I don't always portray that feeling to others. What I see in others, & what they probably see in me--to my shame--is a love for this world. I see us holding on to what we have here. I see us not wanting to be separated from our loved ones (both saved & not saved), as if our lives aren't going to be infinitely better when we're there. I can understand us wanting and hoping that the Lord waits until everyone we love is also saved. After all, doesn't 2 Peter 3:9 tell us that even God Himself is patiently waiting to return so that as many are saved as possible? As a mother of young children, I absolutely and sincerely pray every day that the Lord will return before they get too old and the possibility of them falling away gets stronger. Perhaps that means I don't trust in myself enough to do a good job of raising them. Of course, when you see the children of strong Christians fall away, and you think, "wow, I would have never thought that so-&-so's kids would turn away," then it's harder to trust the job you would do yourself. But then, as a parent, your main focus on the earth is your children, so I suppose it makes sense that you would think of them first, and want Christ to return when the likelihood of them being saved is the best.I still remember when my brother was younger (I'm thinking maybe around 5?), he was really bothered by the thought of eternity. I think he was even scared by it and had nightmares about it. I'm pretty sure he has gotten over that, at least the scared feeling he had, but it wasn't too long ago that I was talking with someone around my age who had similar feelings. She just wasn't sure she wanted to imagine what it would be like to live forever. The only comforting things I could offer her are that God has promised us that it will be better than we could possibly imagine. I could tell her what the Bible says about heaven, and we can believe that what the Bible says is what heaven will be. We have to stop thinking that the things that bother us here on earth will follow us to heaven. Even the things we love here on earth will not follow us to heaven, and we need to understand that it's okay. We're not going to need them, we're not even going to want them, or maybe God actually will have them there for us. To reassure my 4- & almost-6-yr-olds that it would be okay that their toys here would not be going to heaven with them, I told them that God would make sure that whatever toys they would want when they were in heaven would be there. Yeah, that was a little roundabout way to avoid saying outright, "Um, you might not have your toys in heaven."
I have just started studying more about heaven. I don't really know all that much of what the scripture says. Considering how much I look forward to it, that's probably not good. I do understand that in my most fantastic dreams I couldn't begin to imagine how wonderful it will be, and that is really exciting to me. When you were younger, and Christmas was about 20 days away, then 15 days away, closer, closer ... did you not pray or at least wish that Christmas would come sooner?? When your family was planning a trip to Disney World, did you not hope that you could wake up & find that the day of your departure had arrived?
WHY are we not wishing, praying, for Christ to come sooner??
*** Update*** I want to send you all over to Trey Morgan's post: 10 Top Reasons I'm Excited About Heaven. It's a great list, one that'll get you excited about being in heaven, if you need some extra enthusiasm. I think it's really funny that his introductory paragraph is a bit like my paragraph with Christmas. Thanks for giving me that link, Trey! I hadn't gotten back that far in your posts yet.
(Have to give 'im credit: The above picture was taken by my dad, shortly after moving to Florida. Isn't that beautiful??)
9 comments:
gee thanks sis.
I didn't have nightmares. I did make myself sick over it though. The thought of eternity like a big never ending circle freaked me out and my head would spin and i would get sick. I guess I just stopped thinking about it. I just couldn't get my head around that.
As I've grown in my relationship with God and my longing for that relationship to deepen more and more, my longing for heaven has increased because I don't want to be separated from Him for eternity. Greater than the fear of hell's fire and spending eternity in the presence of the worst evil we can imagine is the fear of eternal separation from the greatest love and all the love that exists. Heaven will be wonderful in some physical sense or whatever replaces physical sense (I, too, need to study more about heaven), but in the emotional and spiritual sense greater than we can imagine, too.
Our Revelation teacher tried to help us understand why John used the language he did in Revelation by having us try to explain a jet airplane to George Washington. The words and concepts aren't there. The words and concepts about heaven are beyond our comprehension. If we can try to remember the very happiest moments of our lives and envision greater than than constantly, it's just too AWEsome for our understanding. The reason we want our toys, pets, and loved ones in heaven is because they represent our deepest feelings of love. As we grow in our relationship with God, He is our deepest love and all we need to satisfy.
Our gratitude for His great gift and longing for our true home are what we want/need to share with the lost. . . and might be a reason we don't pray MARANATHA, because others don't yet have that great gift. It's hard to fathom Paul's deep love for his brethren that he could almost imagine giving up his opportunity for heaven for the sake of theirs. I can certainly understand why you'd pray that Jesus return while your children are young, innocent, and still spiritually safe.
Very interesting. I agree with Pat. She said it very well here:
The reason we want our toys, pets, and loved ones in heaven is because they represent our deepest feelings of love. As we grow in our relationship with God, He is our deepest love and all we need to satisfy.
I believe that the "change" Paul talks about in I Cor. 15:51ff will help us to understand many things at that time. The most important being that once we're with Jesus we won't have a need to be with anyone else.
Funny story, when my six year old was younger, she was asking really tough questions. I assured her that one day she could ask God anything she wanted. She was thrilled and she said, "I'm gonna ask first where mayonnaise comes from!"
Mmm.. big questions going on!
God bless you lots this day
In Jesus
Maria in the UK
www.inhishands.co.uk
Sara Groves has a beautiful song ("What Do I Know?" from the Conversations album) about an older woman facing death who is suddenly unsure of what eternity holds for her. There's a line in the song that is just so simple and so poignant, "But I know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord, and from what I know of him that must be very good."
Infinity is something that our finite brains can not comprehend so that song, that line really helped me see what the focus of heaven will be. Being with God. That will be very good.
I love the thoughts of heaven. I think of all the things on this earth I'd love to have and can't. I'm sure in heaven ... I can. Woopee.
I'll be eating Krispy Kreme donuts by the dozen and chasing them down with "whole" milk. yummmmmm
I had an article about heaven a while back ... "Top 10 Reasons I want to go." Check it out when you get time.
Blessings -
http://rediscovering-church.blogspot.com/2006/12/top-10-reasons-im-excited-about-heaven.html
I may scare Trey with my comments but here goes (more proof that he and I are a lot alike). I too am a little scared about heaven and eternity. Part because it's an unknown, part because I don't understand what it's like to exist in one eternal day, and part because death is involved. I think when I was young (around 5 or 6) I saw a hearse and my buddies used to do things to try and scare each other concerning the hearse. So I learned early on to fear death. I have loosely "overcome" that fear by staying focused on God's graciousness. I know that he will not lead me to a place that is bad for me. Still I struggle a bit with eternity. But I'm not veering off my course for eternity. The alternative is worse. So I focus on fulfilling my role of glorifying the only one in the universe who has done so much for me.
Death is such a part of my life. I lost dad when I was nine, and mom when I was nineteen. It's always been there looming in the very near background so I'm comfortable with it. I don't worry about my children if I die. I always think that God did such a good job raising me and my brother that they would be in good hands. In a way, I'm looking forward to it.
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