Can't Wait!

I'm a little less than halfway through the book "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn and I highly recommend it.  Due to good teaching and preaching I've received in my lifetime I haven't been blown away by the ideas presented in the book, but some may be because it is a return to a Biblical understanding of Heaven rather than a Plutonic understanding.  So, click on the link above and purchase the book or e-book and read it because what will follow in this post won't be near as good.

As I read the book and as I read the Bible and as I do many other things in life I'm left with a sense of "Can't Wait!"

Oliver Wendell Holmes, SR is attributed with the famous quote, "Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good."  I understand the sentiment of this quote, but it is quite the opposite.  We must be heavenly minded or we will be no earthly good.  Thinking about Heaven (I capitalize it because it is a place as real or more real than Chicago) is a catalyst for our earthly goodness.  Thinking about Heaven isn't about escaping Earth because in the end Heaven will come to Earth.  We are to live for the Kingdom and the Kingdom is Heaven and Earth together.

So, when I think of Heaven I'm not simply thinking of Heaven as it exists now, I'm thinking most of Heaven as it will exist... the New Heaven and New Earth.  I can't wait!

Let's think about what Heaven will be like for us.  First, know that Heaven will be a physical place with rocks and trees and rivers; it will be a place where I have a body and you have a body; it will be a place much like the Garden of Eden only more expansive and more glorious and completely incorruptible.  Second, though Heaven will be greater than I can imagine it will  not be completely foreign from what I imagine.  See, if Heaven is God's creation renewed then it will at the very least resemble His creation as I see it today; it will be much better, perfect in fact, but it will be something we'll recognize.  Going to Heaven (the New Heaven and the New Earth) will be like coming home only perfect.

I can't wait!

Imagine with me:

Relationships where we never hurt one another or even rub one another the wrong way.  Relationships where I am still Matt and you are still you in every essence of that yet we never experience anything less than our best interactions here on Earth.

Mountain sunsets.  I've been to the Rocky Mountains and watched the sunrise and sunset, it is amazing, yet what will be seen in Heaven will far surpass that.

Games of basketball.  I love sports, watching and playing them and analyzing them.  I love it when I get the opportunity to play a game with people.  Imagine a game in Heaven.  The thrill of competition without the enmity.  I don't believe it will be boring as is portrayed in the movie Pleasantville where we make every shot, but it will be perfect.  Somehow competition will be as God designed, it will give us the thrill and will bring us immense joy without dividing us; I don't know how because I hate to lose, but I imagine it will.

Discovering God's attributes.  I enjoy the exhilaration of learning something that expands my view of God.  In Heaven we will get that over and over and over.  We will see God face-to-face and yet there will be more to learn.  Right now I have a grain of sand and that will keep me occupied until I die, but Heaven will be like seeing the beach!   Since God is infinite we will have an eternity of the thrill of learning about God.  In fact, for my academic friends, we will have an eternity to discover and learn about many things from biology to astronomy and we will never exhaust it.

Fruitful work.  I work in radio and when I have a great broadcast I get such a high off of that.  In Heaven we will have work and it will always be fulfilling and fruitful.  There will be work without burnout, work without failure, work will be everything it is on your best day of doing your favorite task.  We will always look forward to doing whatever work is in Heaven for us.

I can't wait!

Imagine and think about Heaven with eager expectation.  Look at the great things that God offers us now on Earth and imagine them magnified and then imagine that what you just imagined will be even better in reality.

Be so heavenly minded that you are earthly good today.