Just the Basics

Dreams seem very real . . . while we are dreaming. Happy ones can make us smile. Nightmares can make us toss and turn. But once we wake up, there is a greater and more vivid reality awaiting us. This life seems very real . . . while we are living it. Good days can make us laugh. Bad ones can make us cry. But David said to God that leaving this life behind will seem like waking up from a dream. And I – in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness. Then we will be more alive than we have ever been and in a place that is more wonderful than we have ever known. We will get a pure heart in an immortal body with the joyful reunion of loved ones in an unspoiled world. But the biggest joy for us will be a loving relationship unlike anything we have ever experienced: we will be united with our God. Our heavenly Father promised that we will be His children. For orphans there is no greater joy than having a loving family adopt them as one of their own. That sense of belonging is priceless. We too will experience this sense of belonging in the deepest way possible, knowing that we will never be separated from the unconditional love of our heavenly Father. To express the loving bond between ourselves and God another way, Paul once wrote, “I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” John was later given a glimpse of this coming wedding between ourselves and Jesus, the Lamb of God. Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing water and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”’ Either way we look at it, John assured us the bond between ourselves and God will be inseparable. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’ If we have ever been away from home and our loved-ones for a long time and then come home - oh, that is wonderful! Seeing the old hometown or the home we grew up in is great. Greeting old friends is a treat. But it is being back with those we love the most which makes the return so sweet. This is what we will experience forever and ever. We will be thrilled to have a new heart and a new body. It will be wonderful to be re-united with loved ones in this eternal paradise. But coming home to the presence of our God – that will make eternity truly perfect.