This Sunday, we’ll begin a 3-week series exploring what Heaven will be like, with a resurrected earth, resurrected people, and resurrected relationships.
Some people, when they’re honest with themselves, have to admit that they aren’t really looking forward to heaven. They think they’ll be leaving behind family, friends, career ambitions, and favorite surf spots to float around in the clouds in a church service that lasts forever. Most of us have a picture of heaven like it’s a place that only a 90-year-old great-grandmother would want to visit!
But the way the Bible describes heaven is radically different. It’s familiar and comforting. Changing and dynamic. A place of discovery and excitement. Best of all, a place where all of our desires are fulfilled through the presence of God. Understanding this can make a big difference in the way we live today. Randy Alcorn explains in his book We Shall See God:
In 1952, Florence Chadwick stepped off Catalina Island, California, into the waters of the Pacific Ocean, determined to swim to the mainland. An experienced swimmer, she had already made history as the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways.
The weather that day was foggy and chilly; Florence could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam steadily for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water, her mother, in a boat alongside her, told her that she was close and that she could make it. But Florence, physically and emotionally exhausted, stopped swimming and was pulled into the boat. It wasn’t until she was on board that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away. At a news conference the next day, she said, “All I could see was the fog. . . . I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”
When you face discouragement, difficulty, or fatigue, or when you feel surrounded by the fog of uncertain circumstances, are you thinking, If only I could see the shore, I could make it?
Set your sights on Jesus Christ, the Rock of salvation. He is the One who has promised to prepare a place for those who put their hope in him, a place where they will live with him forever. If we can learn to fix our eyes on Jesus, to see through the fog and picture our eternal home in our mind’s eye, it will comfort and energize us, giving us a clear look at the finish line.
When the apostle Paul faced hardship, beatings, and imprisonment, he said, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14, NIV). What gave Paul the strength and perspective to “press on toward the goal”? A clear view of Heaven.