You wake up. You look straight ahead. You see a gate with lumps of pearls like grapes clustered on a stem. You suddenly feel light and run towards the gate. From a distance, the gate looks narrow, but when you come close, you see how wide it is. As you sprint past the gate, someone reads aloud your name. You look up at a person standing on a look-out post on the wall with a large book in his hands. Someone you have wanted to meet your whole life comes to greet you. Face-to-face. He gives you a crown and simply says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” You kneel down and lay your crown next to His feet, where you see two marring marks. He takes your hand and picks you up for an embrace. At last, the fulfillment of your whole life.
When you think about your new home, what exciting things do you imagine? No one can guess what God has prepared, but can’t a child imagine what is in the Christmas present?
Here are a few of my imaginings:
Do you like stories? Heaven is filled with stories, mostly from people. Whom do you want to meet from God’s Book? Have you ever wondered what it was like for the two men traveling to Emmaus to suddenly realize they were with Jesus—like getting shocked with electricity, maybe? Why didn’t they know it was Him? Also, why didn’t Jonah want to go witness to the wicked people of Nineveh? Was someone in his family—father, mother, sibling—killed by the people of Nineveh? What about Elisha’s servant? Elisha prayed for him to see the spiritual world. What was it like for him to see thousands of chariots and angels? What did they look like? The stories you’ll hear will be more than just the surface the Bible gives. What story do you want to hear?
What kind of work will you do? If God is a workman and we reflect Him in our creation, I think we will work in Heaven—a satisfying work that you want to keep doing. As a writer, I wonder if God will let me write the stories of the people in Heaven in a book and read it to Him for His pleasure. Your work and creativity reflect the work of Christ. What will you be able to do?
Do you like Christmas music year-round? Well, in Heaven, there will be a lot of CHRIST-music. A choir of the mighty warriors of Heaven will be singing God’s praise—like the best Christmas carolers you have ever heard. You will not want to sing any less a thousand years after entering those clustered gates.
What will your home look like? God is specifically designing a home for you with a gold street and a gold driveway. Maybe yours will contain many animals or bookshelves or gardens? But God’s imagination is bigger than our finite minds, so His blueprint is better than ours.
Is your dream to become the next Prince William and Princess Kate? As a “joint-heir” with Christ, you are a prince or princess of God. When Christ comes back to rule for a thousand years, you will be one of those ruling over a domain. But with the Man on His white horse as the Head, this Kingdom will last forever.
Always wanted to own a petting zoo? The giraffe can be your look-out tower and the eagle can be your drone. The bear can be your huggable companion and the lion a more peaceful friend than an unpredictable cat. The person who said dog is man’s best friend is from the earth.
What will creation look like without the spell of sin? Will the creation around you look different? Do trees look more like thorn bushes or weeds than what God originally created them to look like? Were ants meant to transport items like dirt or fertilizer for people, rather than tormenting with poisonous bites? Were sunsets prettier before the fall? Are there more colors than our eyes can see now? Since sin casts a curse on creation, what will the glorified creation look like?
Heaven is made from the blueprint of God. He has good gifts set aside for His children that I can’t wait to open. His reward is more filling than all the wealth in the world. But the real fulfillment comes from a relationship with Him that starts right now and continues when you see Him face-to-face.