Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 26

Photo: some tokens of my past: my baby book

and infant dress, father's Bible, and century-old pitcher.



FAMILY TREASURES“But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” –Matthew 6:21
Maybe it’s an old rocker, quilt, set of dishes, a piece of jewelry, artwork, or wedding veil—but most families have some sort of “treasure” passed down through the generations. Sometimes we display our “family treasures”; sometimes we carefully pack them away, telling our children, “This is old and special and you’ll inherit it.” As such, family treasures become a sort of time capsule—reminders of life in our families in years past.

Few of us, however, go as far as folks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in “preserving” a generation’s treasures. In 1957, Tulsans buried a new gold-and-white Plymouth Belvedere automobile in a vault at the courthouse. The plan was to unearth it in fifty years, at which time some believed we wouldn’t even use cars any more. In 2007, about seven thousand people (who, despite the 1957 prediction, still drove cars) watched workmen pull out the rusty relic. It had flat tires, a corroded radiator, and disintegrating upholstery. The engine that one writer described as “a very large paperweight” wouldn’t start. (1)

Tulsa’s folly brings to mind Jesus’ teaching that earth’s treasures are vulnerable to rust (like this once-new car), moths and thieves (Matt. 6:19-21). Someday the end will come for that heirloom vase, two-hundred-year-old quilt, antique car, trophy case, stuffed moose head, Oscar or Super Bowl ring, or even a building named in your honor. We take none of it to Heaven.

Yet Heaven does have room for intangible “treasures” connected with our lives on earth. The apostle Peter said they’re a spiritual inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fade, and they’re kept in Heaven for those who trust in Jesus as their Savior (1 Pet. 1:3-5). This promise meant a lot to people of Bible times who faced personal losses because of their faith in Christ. They endured public insult, persecution, confiscation of their property, and even imprisonment. Yet the Bible says these believers were able to weather hardship and loss with joy because they believed they had “better and lasting possessions” in eternity (Heb.10:34).

But what of the other side of the coin: devout people who’ve been blessed with wealth and advantage and who can store and enjoy those “family treasures”? The Bible advises them to “pay forward” to spiritual treasures--“do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (1 Tim. 6:17-19). In our times, an example of that was Dr. Ken Taylor, best known for the paraphrased The Living Bible and several children’s books, and for founding a successful Christian publishing house. His vision brought financial success, but he directed his worldly wealth to foundations to further the publication of the Bible throughout the world. Many accolades came Taylor’s way, including four honorary doctorates, but he continued to live humbly into old age. At 87, asked to reflect on his life, he didn’t talk about worldly success but rather a spiritual inheritance and knowing God better. “I want to see my stumbling prayer life grow strong,” he said, adding he’d once again begun a prayer notebook. He wanted to continue reading the Bible daily--Genesis to Revelation—as he’d often urged others to practice. “I will be His servant to the end,” Taylor added, “and then suddenly be transformed from a servant into a son!” (2) He died about a year later, just weeks after turning 88. He left behind the earthly ledger books and awards. He entered Heaven to claim treasures that the Bible calls “crowns.”

Many people mistakenly think that the Bible’s crowns imply Heavenly royalty. Instead, the word the Bible uses for these Heavenly rewards is the same as that for circlets of vines or leaves used to “crown” skilled athletes. Commending individual success in athletic games, these crowns eventually wilted and dried up. But Heaven’s commendation “crowns” will last forever (1 Cor. 9:25). The Bible named some. The “crown of life” is for those who persevered in faith, some to martyrdom (James 1:12. Rev. 2:10). The “crown of righteousness” recognizes performing with integrity the ministry God entrusts to you (2 Tim. 4:8). The “crown of rejoicing” commends those who lead others to faith in Christ (1 Thess. 2:19). The “crown of glory” is for sacrificial pastoral ministry (1 Pet. 5:2-4).

What will we do with these crowns? Be assured: they won’t go in a vault or time capsule for safekeeping. In his vision of Heaven, John saw saints laying their crowns before God’s throne as they worshipped Him as “worthy…to receive glory and honor and power” (Rev. 4:11).Being a part of God’s family is the treasure!

Prayer: God, help me to keep the perspective of Heavenly treasures when I fuss too much about leaving behind earthly “stuff.” Amen.
 (1) Randy Krehbiel, “Tarnished Gold,” Tulsa World, June 16, 2007, http://www.tulsaworld.com/common/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleID=070616_238_A1_spanc28602, accessed November 9, 2008.
(2) Kenneth Taylor, “On Aging,” Wheaton Magazine (Autumn 2004), p. 14.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 25

THE MUSIC ROOM
“And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne….” –Revelation 14:2, 3a

“Heavenly music” to my husband means Southern Gospel songs, including “It’s Your First Day in Heaven.” One of my top picks (besides the hymn “Be Thou My Vision”) is Handel’s Messiah. As an amateur violinist, stumbling through my part for that work in worship concerts, I sometimes wonder how it would be to play it perfectly in a heavenly orchestra. Then there’s my son, with a basement music studio where he “jams” with friends playing an array of guitars, electronic keyboards, and drums. He wouldn’t mind picking an electric guitar for heaven’s worship band--with as many amplifiers and sound effect pedals as possible! My daughter, a violinist, would sign up for sacred string quartets. Mitch from my church would wail a soulful praise harmonica.

If the music and instruments we know on earth existed in heaven, its “Music Room” would be enormous beyond understanding. We don’t know just what God plans musically for Heaven, but we know it’s an important part. It’s been significant on earth from the beginning. Widespread tradition claims music was the first language that God spoke to create the universe. Poet Christina Rossetti remarked that Heaven is revealed to earth as the homeland of music. (1)

The Bible says on the day the earth’s foundations were set, “the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy”(Job 38:7). Jubal, the seventh generation from Adam, was called “the father of all who play the harp and flute”(Gen. 4:22). Thousands of years of music later, Solomon’s temple had a staff of 288 priestly musicians just for worship music (1 Chron. 25:7). Imagine that for your church! Truly, God valued music in worship.

The Bible says Heaven’s worship music will be musically exciting and loud. John’s vision included loud thunder peals, roars like rushing waters, trumpets, and harps, along with innumerable believers and angelic beings praising God. “Then I heard every creature in Heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea,” John wrote, “and all that is in him, singing, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’”(Rev. 5:13). The last book of the Bible calls this “a new song” (Rev. 14:3). Whatever their lyrics and music lines, Heaven’s songs will never grow old. That’s great news for those who mentally disconnect while singing the same old choruses and hymns at church. In Heaven, too, we’ll finally put to rest those church divisions over whether we should have traditional hymns or contemporary choruses.

One Bible teacher noted that some who claim to have had visions of Heaven while “dead” (they were later revived) described its music as entirely different from earthly music. They said it was “like comparing a toddler’s banging on a toy xylophone with a symphony orchestra.” (2)

Could some of earth’s inspired worship music be a part of Heaven’s worship? We don’t know, but we do know that some great Christian music has bridged diverse cultures. The late J. Oswald Sanders, a well-loved Bible teacher, told of traveling three days through China’s mountains by horseback to a primitive village where a conference drew a thousand people. To his surprise, the program included a performance of “The Hallelujah Chorus” (from Handel’s Messiah) sung in Chinese along with other praise songs. (3)

Even more profound, has Heaven’s music, hidden in our hearts, become expressed through earthly songs? Years after spearing five missionaries attempting a friendly contact, Waodoni Indians of Ecuador, now Christians, recalled hearing strange music in the treetops as the missionaries died. One Waodoni woman said she heard the same “strange music” when she listened to her missionary-friend’s record of Christian choir music. Decades later, a still-living warrior from the time of the murders heard a recording of a music arrangement based on the hymn “Every Tribe, Every Nation.” In his native tongue, he declared, “manami ihindabopa” [“just as I heard it”]—meaning it matched the tree-top angel choir he heard that fateful day. (4)

As you anticipate the Music Room, recall these lines from the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”: “Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise./Teach me some melodious sonnet,/Sung by flaming tongues above.” In your spirit, clear your throat, wet your reed, warm up your horn, tune that stringed instrument. Get ready for the matchless Heavenly praise concert that will release unfettered joy in worship.

Prayer: Dear God, even if my “joyful noise” of praise to you on earth left a lot to be desired, I can’t wait to do it the right way in Heaven! Amen.

(1) J. Oswald Sanders, Heaven: Better by Far (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Discovery House Publishers, 1993), p. 106.
(2) Peter Kreeft, “What Will Heaven Be Like?”, Christianity Today, http://ctlibrary.com/print.html?id=7409, accessed June 27, 2006.
(3) Sanders, pp. 106, 7
(4) Stephen Saint, “Angels, Yes, I Think It Was Angels,” January 30, 2002, from http://www.itecusa.org/itec_024.htm, accessed July 3, 2008.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 24

THE LIBRARY
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may…grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”--Ephesians 3:17b-19

Grand homes, in contrast to ordinary homes with a bookcase or two, boast vast home libraries. You probably remember old movies that showed a silver-haired scholar browsing his floor-to-ceiling bookshelves via a rolling ladder, dusty light pouring through leaded windows between velvet curtains. Some may think that if (and that’s a big “if”) Heaven has a library, it might be like those portrayed in film. If so, it will also exist on a scale so grand as to make the Library of Congress look like the paperback rack at the convenience store. Others say Heaven couldn’t have a library because books are an invention of our earthly life. The Bible provides no answer for that. But remember that God chose to communicate to us through a book called the Bible.

Maybe the better issue to address in considering Heaven’s “library” is the acquisition of knowledge. Sometimes people say, “When I get to Heaven, I’ll understand everything.” The apostle Paul seemed to suggest that when he said that when “perfection” (Heaven) comes, “Then I shall know fully” (1 Cor. 15:12). But Paul didn’t mean that he’d have instant, entirely-complete knowledge. We won’t know everything because only God is all-knowing. Only an omniscient God can carry the burden of infinite knowledge. But Heaven will open our eyes in ways we cannot imagine.

I think that the God who created us to have curiosity, imagination and understanding will certainly allow us to continue learning without boredom. Mysteries will be explained: creation, Black Holes and the extent of all the universe, why God permitted evil, how the sun temporarily stopped for Joshua’s troops (Joshua 10:13), how a little bread multiplied for Jesus to feed five thousand—and on and on. God might even have us teach one another. Think of it: Adam teaching botany, Christ-honoring musicians like Bach explaining classical composition, and Calvin and Wesley finally reconciling their theologies in public forum. Maybe our “learning” will be the never-ending discovery of what the apostle Paul called “the incomparable riches of His grace” (Ephesians 2:6). We’ll fill innumerable pages with discoveries about God’s character. We’ll understand the prediction of an old, well-known hymn—that even if the seas were an ink well and the skies a parchment on which to write, we couldn’t write enough about the love and mercy of God. (1)

Another part of Heaven’s library strikes fear in many hearts. It’s what might be called a combination biography and reference section. Among its billions of volumes, there’s one with your name on it. “God has planned that the records of all our lives be preserved,” wrote Wesley Duewel. Your book has “all the facts of your thought life—your ambitions, your hopes, your prayers, your intentions, your motives, your efforts, your carefulness, and your carelessness. All your words, all your deeds, all your prayers, all your love or the opposite—all have been recorded.” (2) Jesus said our secret lives--those words and actions that we don’t want others to know about--will be public record (Luke 12:2,3). Every condemning thought, word, or action will be there, blatant evidence that you don’t belong in God’s perfect, holy Heaven.

There’s only one way to change the parts that bar you from Heaven. You must have your name written in another book, called the Book of Life. That’s the list of those who believe that Jesus died for every sin, including theirs, and who ask God to come into their lives. As for the other book, those forgiven sins will be blotted out, washed clean, as it were, by the blood of Christ. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest followers, preached of that image: “Repent, then, and turn to God, that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). There will still be record of your faithfulness to God, to determine your rewards in Heaven. But the damning entries will be gone. You need not fear the “Records Room” of Heaven.

Instead, Heaven will release you to learn what is most important. The Bible puts it this way: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10). Your earthly education, or lack of it, will no longer impair you. When we delight in God, He delights in revealing Himself. That includes understanding His handiwork and eternal plan. Don’t worry about not having enough time to learn in Heaven. If Heaven has a library, it will never close. God will lift any veil of confusion as you delve into the subjects that capture your heart. Best of all, no “overdues.” Remember, it will operate on eternity-time!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for wiping my sins off Heaven’s record books, and for inviting me to learn more about You for all eternity. Amen.

(1) The 1917 hymn, “The Love of God” by Frederick Lehman
(2) Wesley Duewel, “Your Biography in Heaven,” Women Alive! (May-June 2003), p. 11. Article taken from his book God’s Power Is For You, © 1999.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 23

THE HOME OFFICE
“His servants will serve Him.”--Revelation 22:3

Heaven will be the ultimate home-based business. Although we won’t need to “tele-commute” as we know it, with computers, FAX machines, phones and other electronic marvels, Heaven will be home, and we will work. Our “work,” however, will differ from today’s tiring deadlines, pressure to excel, knotty relationships, and legal complications. We won’t end our day of Heavenly work exhausted.

God’s first perfect work environment was the Garden of Eden. Adam was his chief employee before Eve joined the “work force.” Only when Adam and Eve sinned did “work” turn into “toil” (Gen. 3:17). With no sin in Heaven, we can look forward to regaining the perfect work environment. In his vision of Heaven, John said that God’s servants will serve Him. What does “serve” really mean? The Amplified Bible, a translation that attempts to reflect original Greek word meanings, says: “His servants shall worship Him--pay divine honors to Him and do Him holy service” (Rev. 22:3).

The Bible tells little of our “work” in Heaven aside from worship. But we have the example of Eden before sin. Even though perfect, it occupied Adam and Eve as caretakers. That should be enough right there! But the Bible also suggests we’ll have Heavenly administrative duties in proportion to our faithfulness on earth. Jesus told two parables about servants who were faithful with investments when their master went away. In one parable the master entrusted the servants with different amounts of “talents” (one talent equaling about $1,000), each according to ability. One got five talents, another two, and a third just one (Matt. 25:14-30). In the other parable, each got just one “minah,” equal to about three months’ wages (Luke 19:11-26). In both parables, two faithful servants had huge returns on investing the master’s money. He was thrilled, calling them “good and faithful,” and increased their responsibilities. In one version of the parable, he gave them charge over multiple cities. In each parable, a servant who despised his master hid the money. At the end, he was criticized and sent away to “the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:30). That’s one way the Bible describes hell.

These parables teach us to serve our Master, God, with all our hearts and minds and strength. We may have differing abilities (the proportional talents) but we have equal opportunity (the equal minas). Doing nothing grieves God. While the parables point to answers, they also raise questions. What of having charge over ten and five cities? Could this refer to more faithful believers becoming mayors over many Heavenly cities? Or will their proportional faithfulness translate to celestial leadership in their chosen vocation? When we get our new resurrection bodies, will we return to the new earth to pick up when Eden ended? With no sin to complicate production and relationships, can we anticipate bosses who administer with pure love and understanding? If we’re not tapped for celestial government, will we have jobs similar to those we held on earth?

Will we be able to work at something we dreamed of, but had no opportunity or training? Will those who died before maturity, or who were mentally and physically disabled, discover their true, God-designed vocation? Will there be steady job openings in gardening and exploration? More chances for artists and musicians to release those gifts in pure worship? What about transportation jobs—both building and operating vehicles for the earth, water and sky? Remember, after His resurrection, Jesus didn’t need earthly transportation to return to Heaven. Before He returned to God in Heaven, His Heaven-ready body made sudden appearances from one place to another. He bodily went up in clouds and will return in grandeur the same way.

What jobs won’t be in a sinless Heaven? Will we need policemen, firemen, waste management experts, environmental whistle-blowers, or even medical professionals? Because Heaven won’t have unemployment, we must assume that they’ll serve God in a new way that’s exactly right for them. Even more thought-provoking, will angels, whom God created long ago for Heavenly service, be some of our co-workers?

We don’t know the answers to these questions. But we do know that God’s servants will serve and worship Him. They will be utterly happy. They won’t be bored. They may have “home offices” in the place Jesus has prepared just for them. Or their “office” may be in another work assignment area. Best of all, “work” won’t be “work.” It’s never “work” when you love what you’re doing and have the best Boss ever!

Prayer: God, this is something to look forward: starting a new job without those “first day jitters.” I know you have the perfect Heavenly job for me. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 22

THE BANQUET HALL
“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”
—Revelation 19:9

How would you imagine a banquet in Heaven? One artist (whose poster we keep on our refrigerator) painted a long, lavishly appointed banquet table on what appeared to be a beach, the chairs stretching far into the sunset horizon. The plates resembled the circular stained glass windows of a grand cathedral. Exquisite gold flatware and etched crystal completed each place setting. Candles sat on pooled linens. When published, the photo’s caption was simply Jesus’ invitation in the parable of The Great Banquet: “Come, for all things are now ready.” (1)

But this painting showed no guests, unlike Jesus’ parable in Matthew 22, which told of a king wanting to honor his son with a big banquet. One by one, the invited guests turned down the invitation. One said he had to check out a field he had just bought. Another was trying out his oxen. A third just got married. To put these excuses in today’s settings, one put the love of material things ahead of the king’s invitation. The second put his job or business ahead of the king’s call. The third put family ties and social relationships before his allegiance to his king. Angered by their snubs, the king ordered the servant to go to the city’s streets and alleys and bring in the poor, crippled, blind and lame plus any others along the country lanes. Thus, common folk feasted and enjoyed the king’s party. Those least expected to come to a king’s feast were there because they responded to His invitation.

In Heaven’s banquet hall, the people who were too busy or preoccupied for God will miss out. But even paupers will be there if they believed in Jesus. Our Lord remarked, “Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 8:11, also Luke 13:29). Imagine! Passing the rolls to famous people of the Bible who lived thousands of years ago, or somebody from halfway around the world! And speaking of rolls, what will be served at such a banquet? Could God come up with a menu that eclipses the finest restaurant on earth? Of course. Will we finally understand how Jesus is “The Bread of Life” (John 6:35) and how we will never go hungry because we believe in Him? Will there be something like the manna, the Heaven-sent food that sustained the Hebrews in the wilderness? If so, the Host will most certainly be glad to tell us how He did it! Or will we feast on something else, maybe soul food (and I don’t mean Southern cookin’)? David wrote that an encounter with God’s power and glory was as satisfying to his soul as “the richest of food” (Psalm 63:5).

On the other hand, will we eat in Heaven? One answer: why not? In His resurrection body, Jesus ate fish and bread before ascending to Heaven. He even cooked the fish over a fire on the beach! Will we need to eat? We don’t know, because we don’t know how our resurrection bodies will work. There will be no more death and decay, so the normal processes of digestion that we know on earth may not be necessary. What will mark table conversation? Will it be the next playoff game or clothing sale or grandkid antics? Hardly. Perhaps it will be wonder that we are actually sitting at Heaven’s wedding feast, actually a member of God’s kingdom (Col. 1:13) and possessing every possible spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3). What about the cooks and servers? Will they be angels? Or will God give us the joy of serving one another as well as Himself? Remembering Jesus’ example of washing feet (John 13), I favor helping serve.

And don’t forget about the guest of honor, Christ, the Bridegroom. In contrast to earthly bridegrooms, eager for the honeymoon to start, this Bridegroom cares deeply about each guest. We’ll have quality time with Him as well as with guests from all of history. Don’t try to figure out how this will happen. It will. It’s Heaven.

There’s an old sermon illustration about the elderly saint who told her family that she wanted to be buried with a Bible in one hand and a fork in the other. She explained, “All these years I’ve gone to church potlucks and when they’re almost over, somebody says, ‘Keep your fork.’ That meant the dessert was ready. The best was yet to come.”

Is your appetite whetted for Heaven’s grand wedding feast? Got your fork ready? The best is yet to come!

Prayer: Lord, I like that phrase, “The best is yet to come.” I’m saving my fork! Amen.

(1) Now out of print, the 1967 art by Bud Meyer depicting Luke 14:17 can be seen online at http://christcenteredmall.com/stores/art/anonymous/the-feast.htm

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 21

PORTRAIT GALLERY
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” –Hebrews 12:1

Most of us like to display family photos on a shelf or our home’s walls. But for a real “portrait gallery,” we need to go back a few hundred years to the palatial manors of aristocrats. They had entire halls lined with larger-than-life formal portraits of family members. In England in the 1700s, many such portraits came from the brushes of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was especially skilled at making unattractive clients look good, despite the grotesque hats, bonnets, and wigs they wore for sittings. Asked how he endured painting such ugliness, he replied, “They all have light and shadow.”

There’s also “light and shadow” in the Bible’s portrait hall, located in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Instead of paints, sin and redemption provide the contrasts of dark and light. Abel is there for his “better sacrifice,” Enoch for pleasing God, Noah for ark-building, and Abraham for trusting God in many moves and for a miracle son. Then come the Jewish patriarchs; Moses, chosen to lead the Exodus; the prostitute Rahab, who in faith hid the Israelite spies; and various judges and kings.The list ends with unnamed people who endured homelessness and cruel methods of persecution, torture, and execution. That left many with bodies we’d consider ugly. But God saw them as beautiful. He honored them by saying “the world was not worthy of them” (Heb. 11:38).

A few verses later, these devout and persecuted believers are called a “great cloud of witnesses” surrounding us (Heb. 12:1). The next verses urge us to live for Christ with the same focus as runners in a race. Some have taken this passage to mean that the “cloud of witnesses” (deceased believers) occupy a celestial grandstand, from which they cheer those on earth still running life’s race. That interpretation prompts some people to say, “Dad’s looking down on me from Heaven,” or “I think Grandma knows that I turned out okay.” But there is no Biblical evidence that saints in Heaven see our ongoing lives on earth. We can only be sure of this: “There is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7). When people turn to God, that news gets through to Heaven.

Instead, the “cloud of witnesses” represents those whose faith and endurance set for us a high standard for living. We have their biographies and testimonies as inspiration to keep running the race. And we’re reminded who inspired them: “Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus voluntarily put aside His original glory as God’s Son, lived simply on earth to teach people about God, and submitted to an excruciating death—all in the eternal plan of God the Father. Because of that, someday we will be able to mingle with the vast Heavenly “great cloud of witnesses.”

Who knows what famous and unknown people you’ll see in Heaven? Aristocracy will mean nothing in Heaven. Heaven is based on holiness, not wealth. If they believed in Jesus, the professor will be there by the pauper, the legless beggar by the legislator, the historical figure by the housekeeper. Earth’s methods of preserving human likeness—line drawings, grand portraits, photographs—won’t be necessary. If we didn’t know them before, we’ll get to know them in Heaven.

A local newspaper gave front-page coverage to the funeral service for a community leader and vibrant Christian who died in an auto accident. The photo with the story showed her husband standing before a large photo of her, his hands raised in praise as the mourners sang a Gospel chorus affirming her faith in Jesus Christ. “Farewell to a faithful friend,” said the headline. But the rest of the story is this: someday there will be “Hello to a faithful friend.” In time, her Christ-believing friends (including those she led to faith in Christ) will join her in the halls of Heaven. She will no longer be a memory or a photo, but eternally alive. And that’s just a start. The grand halls of Heaven won’t have portraits, but this: “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” plus all those “whose names are written in Heaven” (Heb. 12:22-23a). Imagine the size of it!

Even more, imagine the vibrancy in their countenances that even the best artist or photographer on earth couldn’t convey. There will be more than “light and shadow.” The joy of Heaven will dance off their faces, reflecting their thrill of roaming Heaven’s halls and of seeing God, the greatest Artist of all.

Prayer: Almighty God, I look forward to meeting the wonderful people in your Heavenly portrait gallery. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 20

LIGHTS
“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 light.” –Revelation 21:23

If the sun suddenly stopped shining, scientists predict life on earth would cease in about eight minutes. Yet the Bible says Heaven’s holy city will need neither the sun nor the sun-reflecting moon. This leads us to believe it won’t need energy sources, like hydroelectric dams, solar panels, steam, coal, or nuclear plants. We may not need ceiling lights, track lighting, table and desk lamps, porch lights, street lights, search lights, flashlights, tiki torches, or camping lanterns.

Instead, said John in his vision of Heaven, there will be the dazzling glory of God the Father and God the Son (Rev. 21:23). The Old Testament prophet Isaiah predicted it: “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory”(Isaiah 60:19). At the very beginning of time, God said, “Let there be light”(Gen. 1:3). He set in place our sun and untold millions of other stars. In eternity, He will be the light.

The Bible associates God with “light” more than two hundred times. Think of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God on top of Mount Sinai. When Moses came back from the blazing light of God’s presence, his own face shone so brightly that he had to veil it in public (Exodus 34:29-34). God also lent His light to a huge cloud to guide the Israelites day and night through the wilderness en route to Canaan. Later, this became the glowing “shekinah glory” over the sacred Ark of the Covenant in the Jerusalem temple. David declared, “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1). Another psalm calls God “the light of life” (Psalm 56:13).

Daniel had a vision of “The Ancient of Days” with clothing “as white as snow” and hair “white like wool,” sitting on a “throne…flaming with fire” (Dan. 7:9). God arranged for a Heavenly light to herald Jesus’ birth. Toward the end of Jesus’ ministry, He took his closest disciples to a high mountain where He was transfigured into a Being of light: “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” as He talked with two men in “glorious splendor,” identified as long-dead Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:29-35). At Jesus’ death, there was no light. Even at mid-day, the skies grew as dark as night (Mark 15:33). Gospel-writer Luke said, “The sun stopped shining” (Luke 23:45).

The apostle John interchangeably used the terms “life” and “light” for Jesus (John 1:4-5). “God is light,” John wrote, “in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). After Christ returned to Heaven, a Pharisee named Saul went on a rampage against Christians. En route to Damascus, Saul was blinded by an intense light from Heaven. Jesus spoke through it, and Saul (who became Paul) was converted on the spot (Acts 9:3). In the apostle John’s vision of Heaven, he saw lamp stands whose illumination paled next to someone whose “face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev. 1:17), much like the day John saw Christ transfigured on earth. The book of Revelation shimmers with mysteries about God as His people’s light forever. “They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun,” says its concluding chapter, “for the Lord God will give them light” (Rev. 22:5).

God, who lives what the Bible calls “unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16), is purity and holiness in unfathomable intensity. We won’t need dark glasses or to seek shelter from it. It will seem right for it will be home. It will be all we longed for as we suffered in the dark days of earth. World War 2 was one such time of intense darkness and discouragement. Seeking to encourage his nation to persevere against the Nazis, King George VI of Britain delivered a memorable address that included this profound quote from an obscure London lecturer: I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he said to me, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way. (1)

God still bids us take His hand, for He is better than any light we now know. He is safer than any other way as He leads us through death to the place of everlasting light.

Prayer: Dear God of glory and light, some of my days feel dark in my soul. Thank you for the promise that You are the Light that will never be extinguished. Amen.

(1) Quoted by Hudson T. Armerding in “The Hand of God,” Wheaton Magazine (Winter 2005), p. 59.