BLUE PRINTS
"We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” –2 Corinthians 5:8
A home starts with papers called “blue prints,” so named for pre-computer copying methods. Full of measurements, they’re crucial for building a home where everything seen and unseen lines up and works. Blueprints also reveal the values of those having the home built, such as casual or formal entertaining. They may need large closets and a huge garage to store their possessions.
Curiously, many people would plan out Heaven as one grand, luxurious master bedroom suite. They think of Heaven in terms of final rest from the world’s sorrows and sicknesses. You hear that attitude in how people say, “She’s fallen asleep for eternity” or “He passed into eternal slumber.” But the Bible’s blueprints for Heaven don’t limit it to “eternal slumber.” This confusion probably came about because in Bible times, people used the word “sleep” as a euphemism for death.
One better-known example of this was the death of Lazarus, who lived with his sisters Mary and Martha. Jesus had often visited their home. When Lazarus grew deathly ill, the family sent for Jesus, hoping He’d come and heal His friend. But even from miles away, Jesus knew (though others didn’t) that Lazarus had already taken his last breath. “Lazarus is asleep,” He told His followers. They took it to mean that Lazarus was getting a long, healing nap. So Jesus had to clarify: “Lazarus is dead” (John 11:11-14). Soon Jesus would raise Lazarus back to life in a stunning display of His divine power. But years later, Lazarus died again.
The Bible also used “sleep” in describing the death by stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The passage validated that “sleep” meant Stephen’s “death,” because godly men buried Stephen and mourned for him (Acts 7:59-60, 8:2).
But here’s where the Bible’s blueprints for Heaven tell of a wonderful plan after death. The Bible says that when believers die, their spirits leave earth for God’s presence. We don’t know quite how our spirits transition—but God does! The apostle Paul phrased it this memorable, comforting way--that in death we’ll be “away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Just before his own martyr’s death, he wrote he desired “to depart [to die] and be with Christ, which is better by far.”(Philippians 1:23. He looked forward to being forever with his Lord, who had turned a vicious Christian-hater into a vibrant Christ-proclaimer.
There’s more of Heaven’s blueprint than just “being with Christ.” God’s magnificent plan includes details for the most exciting event in all history. Jesus, who went to Heaven in a changed body after His death and resurrection, will come back to earth to summon us bodily to Heaven. The same Creator who assembled molecules for our living earthly bodies, and who knew when each died, will call forth those dead bodies to become changed, Heavenly bodies. That’s what the Bible means when it says the “corruptible” will put on “incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:54). The old earthly bodies that disintegrate at death will come alive in a new way. This is true even of bodies lost to explosions or to the sea, no matter how scattered their original pieces. God knows where they are.
Some Old Testament believers also knew of this grand plan. Despite all his earthly suffering—losing his family, wealth, and health—Job declared that something wonderful would happen after the grave: “After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:27).
“Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead,” the great American evangelist preached one August Sunday in 1899. “Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now! I shall have gone up higher, that is all—out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal; a body death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.” A few months later, he left that “clay tenement” for his immortal “house.”
In thinking about Heaven, we naturally yearn to know exactly what it will be like. But God says, “Trust My blueprint. I’ve told you all you need to know for now.” Five stunning words—“at home with the Lord”—should be enough. Someday we’ll see the completed project and marvel how it was all there after all. We just couldn’t read the plans—yet.
Prayer: Enlarge my spiritual vision, God, for my wonderful eternal Home with You. Amen.
"We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” –2 Corinthians 5:8
A home starts with papers called “blue prints,” so named for pre-computer copying methods. Full of measurements, they’re crucial for building a home where everything seen and unseen lines up and works. Blueprints also reveal the values of those having the home built, such as casual or formal entertaining. They may need large closets and a huge garage to store their possessions.
Curiously, many people would plan out Heaven as one grand, luxurious master bedroom suite. They think of Heaven in terms of final rest from the world’s sorrows and sicknesses. You hear that attitude in how people say, “She’s fallen asleep for eternity” or “He passed into eternal slumber.” But the Bible’s blueprints for Heaven don’t limit it to “eternal slumber.” This confusion probably came about because in Bible times, people used the word “sleep” as a euphemism for death.
One better-known example of this was the death of Lazarus, who lived with his sisters Mary and Martha. Jesus had often visited their home. When Lazarus grew deathly ill, the family sent for Jesus, hoping He’d come and heal His friend. But even from miles away, Jesus knew (though others didn’t) that Lazarus had already taken his last breath. “Lazarus is asleep,” He told His followers. They took it to mean that Lazarus was getting a long, healing nap. So Jesus had to clarify: “Lazarus is dead” (John 11:11-14). Soon Jesus would raise Lazarus back to life in a stunning display of His divine power. But years later, Lazarus died again.
The Bible also used “sleep” in describing the death by stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. The passage validated that “sleep” meant Stephen’s “death,” because godly men buried Stephen and mourned for him (Acts 7:59-60, 8:2).
But here’s where the Bible’s blueprints for Heaven tell of a wonderful plan after death. The Bible says that when believers die, their spirits leave earth for God’s presence. We don’t know quite how our spirits transition—but God does! The apostle Paul phrased it this memorable, comforting way--that in death we’ll be “away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Just before his own martyr’s death, he wrote he desired “to depart [to die] and be with Christ, which is better by far.”(Philippians 1:23. He looked forward to being forever with his Lord, who had turned a vicious Christian-hater into a vibrant Christ-proclaimer.
There’s more of Heaven’s blueprint than just “being with Christ.” God’s magnificent plan includes details for the most exciting event in all history. Jesus, who went to Heaven in a changed body after His death and resurrection, will come back to earth to summon us bodily to Heaven. The same Creator who assembled molecules for our living earthly bodies, and who knew when each died, will call forth those dead bodies to become changed, Heavenly bodies. That’s what the Bible means when it says the “corruptible” will put on “incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:54). The old earthly bodies that disintegrate at death will come alive in a new way. This is true even of bodies lost to explosions or to the sea, no matter how scattered their original pieces. God knows where they are.
Some Old Testament believers also knew of this grand plan. Despite all his earthly suffering—losing his family, wealth, and health—Job declared that something wonderful would happen after the grave: “After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:27).
“Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead,” the great American evangelist preached one August Sunday in 1899. “Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now! I shall have gone up higher, that is all—out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal; a body death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.” A few months later, he left that “clay tenement” for his immortal “house.”
In thinking about Heaven, we naturally yearn to know exactly what it will be like. But God says, “Trust My blueprint. I’ve told you all you need to know for now.” Five stunning words—“at home with the Lord”—should be enough. Someday we’ll see the completed project and marvel how it was all there after all. We just couldn’t read the plans—yet.
Prayer: Enlarge my spiritual vision, God, for my wonderful eternal Home with You. Amen.
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