Paradise

Last night 'round 9:30, I sat quietly alone prayerfully thinking about the day that was now ending; and I longed for Paradise. As I prayed, God was near. The experience of His Presence is wonderful, but I still have to deal with the multiple evidences of sin in myself and my world - as I had done throughout yesterday. I am not complaining about my life! I enjoy rich blessings - the love of God, many friendships, a comfortable home, a loving wife, great kids. I even took my Miata out in the Spring sunshine for a spin with the top down yesterday. What I am trying to say is that even with a good life, there is a longing for that promised place where sin cannot enter, where suffering is unknown, and where intimacy with God is unbroken. The Psalmist expresses my desire: "One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple." (Psalm 27:4, NIV)

Heaven is written into us by our Creator. He made us to love and serve Him and, as we invite His Spirit to be at work in us, we will more intensely desire His Presence, which will be perfectly known when we reach Paradise! One of my favorite authors, Dallas Willard, points Believers forward to eternity. Without a firm grasp on the promise of Paradise, we risk becoming disillusioned, even embittered, with the passing of time. He writes, "I meet many faithful Christians who, in spite of their faith, are deeply disappointed in how their lives have turned out. Sometimes it is a matter of how they experience aging, which they take to mean they no longer have a future. But often, due to circumstances or wrongful decisions and actions by others, what they had hoped to accomplish in life they did not .... Much of the distress of these people comes from a failure to realize that their life lies before them.. the life that lies endlessly before us in the kingdom of God." (The Divine Conspiracy) We must look beyond what we cannot understand now and take hold of what we are certainly promised throughout the Scriptures. We must not allow ourselves to make the error of thinking that eternal life only begins when we die, that the joy of Heaven is only available to us after our bodies are in the grave! I am a citizen of Heaven, now by the grace of Jesus Christ. I can and I do commune with the Lord of Glory now. I am called to bring Heaven to earth, to live in earnest expectation of glories to come, while confronting the darkness of sin with the Light of Heaven, right now!

We need to imitate the life of the father of the faithful, Abraham. He heard God's call, grasped the reality of Paradise, and lived the rest of days here on earth on pilgrimage. Was he perfect? No! He took some detours from the straight and narrow path, but he never lost sight of where he was going. "By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God." (Hebrews 11:8-10, The Message)

I am concerned that we do not anticipate Paradise with greater desire because we have adopted a faulty vision of that place. Hollywood has given us the wrong picture of Heaven. The images of the misty fog enveloping transparent spirits floating in a ghostly realm, the fat little cherubs strumming harps as their feet dangle over the edge of clouds, is nonsense! Heaven is a place; yes, a real substantial place, created by the same God that thought up the refraction of sunlight by water moisture which produces the beauty of a rainbow. He did that for a thing of beauty that lasts for a few moments. The One who designed this temporal world, which is destined for destruction, has built a place where we will live eternally. If He would make a temporary world of such splendor, I can only begin to imagine what Heaven, His eternal home looks like. John tried to describe it for us, but could only speak of gates of pearl and streets of gold!

The best conversation, the deepest intimacy with another, the most wonderful worship, the most blissful day of rest - are just glimpses of Glory! So, by faith, reach out and hold onto Heaven. Never lose sight of that place. When life is overwhelming, when sin threatens to engulf you, when all seems futile, when disappointment breaks your heart - look up and thank God that He has written Heaven into your heart. It is precisely the longing for Paradise that makes us unwilling to settle down and desire our best life now. We are headed home!
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16, NIV)
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