Heaven

                                                                                                                                                  Barb Harwood, photo

Today I thank God for heaven, because in heaven, relationships will finally be right. No longer will we be social misfits, trying to navigate our way through myriad personalities and the misunderstandings that inevitably arise out of them. We won't wonder if we offended, or mistakenly think someone intentionally meant to offend us. Assumptions, hunches and speculations will not be in heaven. Heart to heart talks will not be about healing the past, but about sharing complete joy in the present. We will walk with the Lord in the perfection we are so aware of lacking here. We will be humble in His presence because that is what we will know--and desire--to be. In heaven, we will never fail in our interpersonal relationships.


If there is any motivation of telling others of Christ, and prayer for them, especially those we have proverbially struggled with in relationship on this earth, it is the confidence and joy of knowing that if we are together in heaven, those relationships will be all grace. Not a trace of sin or rebellion or imperfection will be in them. We will know our nemeses, enemies, rough-around-the-edges friends and family and those with whom our relationships are like oil and water, in perfect peace, in heaven. And they will know us. 


And those we hold dear and get along with here on earth, but also, on occasion, hurt: these too we will walk alongside of in complete reconciliation. 


For this great promise and redemption, I thank, ever so much, our compassionate and obedient Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:6-8)


"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15).




"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11


"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,..." Revelation 21:1


"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. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'" Revelation 21:3-4