Big and Little Longings for Heaven
REVELATION 21:22-25
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.
REVELATION 22:1-2
22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
My thoughts have been on heaven lately. Mostly as a result of the things around me that cause discomfort. I mean this on both a large and tiny scale. On the large scale, I see politics as one long Twitter feed that is exhausting and almost unreal in its drama, like a soap opera that should be meant for entertainment but is, in fact, real life. And I see violence in schools and in churches and in the streets. Even pedestrians are not safe to walk the sidewalks of their towns. I see social media growing and privacy laws bleeding out so I no longer know where my information goes and who sees it and what they will do with it, much less my children’s “data” when they come into their own in ten, fifteen, twenty years. I see a son who wishes he could move his body more freely than his cerebral palsy will let him. On the small scale, I see a light blue Honda Odyssey that is in no way equipped to hold the power wheelchair that my son will need in a few months’ time. I see a yard full of weeds for which we have already been fined by the home owner’s association three times. I see gray peeking through the color in my hair. I see twin three-year-olds who will be four in June. I feel the summer heat approaching and envision one unavoidable sunburn on some tiny person’s shoulder which I will worry about for years to come.
I see all this and long for a different picture.
I see the big and the little and I long for heaven, for the new Eden where the tree of life isn’t temptation, but part of the scenery in a world that knows no day or night, but instead rests in a glorious golden haze of happiness because of its proximity to the Trinity.
I love this vision and I do not feel for one moment guilty of longing for it.
I think so often, Christians see this longing as a “giving up” on the present, a throwing up of hands at the state of events. But I disagree. This vision is what keeps me fighting for the present. This vision is what makes me listen to the news and vote and pray for school reform and all the reforms. It’s what makes me file for insurance for a new handicap-accessible van and eat my leafy greens and spray the kids down with sunscreen like they’re getting a paint job. The vision of a new heaven and a new earth is what keeps me going. It proves that there is a point to my actions: I am called to live a hopeful and productive life in the name of the Lord because He has SO MUCH good waiting for me on the other side. And so…I aim to live a worshipful life in the face of all these hard things. It is the least I can do for the ultimate joy that is just around the corner.
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A big thank you from Jamie on The Mom Gene!
