Beyond the Here and Now

It is so easy to get engrossed in the pursuits and pressures of this life here and now—here in the flesh, this side of heaven!  Even as a pastor whose job is all about helping people look up to the Lord and look ahead to our future glorification in his presence, it’s so easy to get embroiled in nitty-gritty, temporal stuff.  Like lawn care and prescriptions and insurance rates and traffic and the Eagles and…

If you can relate, then ask the Father to help you look up from your phone, be still in his presence, and consider the wonders ahead!  Revela­tion 21-22 paints several pictures of the glorious new heavens and new earth:  the ultimate wedding celebration (21:2, 9); no more tears or grief or pain (21:4); we drink at the fountain of life (21:6); the New Jerusalem is radiant, massive, gleaming—and in that world there’s no night:  the glory of God is its light (21:23-25).  Imagine.

As the Apostle John scrambles for images and metaphors to help us visualize what he saw in the definitive revelation of what’s to come (1:11, 19), it begins to dawn on us—if we’ll just be quiet and sit still and take it in—that the future world for all who eagerly await Jesus’ return (Hebrews 9:28) will be awesome beyond belief!

Romans 8:18 reinforces this hope:  “For I consider that the suffer­ings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  Today’s trials, and even Paul’s many intense, gut-wrenching afflictions (see 2 Cor 11:23-29), are miniscule and inconse­quential compared to heaven’s glory.  This is not to minimize the pain of suffering—not at all—but to underscore how mind-boggling and category-demolishing are the wonders of the life to come.

Let this sink in.  Think of our world’s most grave tribulations—as in Hebrews 11:35-38 (torture, scourging, stoning, being sawn in two).  Think of trafficking and cholera and hurricanes and suicide bomb­ings and serial murders…  Let the sorrow of these things wash over you like a great, dark wave.  But then remember that the degree of heaven’s splendor makes the degree of misery in such suffering seem so small.  Do the math:  if being sawn in two scores -10 on a scale of 1 to 10, heaven scores +1,000,000.  That’s why Paul can call his mountain of trials a “slight momentary affliction” (2 Corinthians 4:17).  Imagine.