Growing up as a non-Christian I had a very negative view of heaven based mainly on cartoons. The thought of being a chubby baby in a diaper for all eternity sitting alone on a cloud plinking on a harp with wings too small to carry my girth anywhere interesting seemed more like hell than heaven to me.
Thankfully, Jesus gives us an inviting, compelling, and comforting sneak preview of heaven, saying in John 14:2-3 “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
In our family of seven, I am the vacation planner. I am adventurous. I like to travel and see the world. Growing up next to the airport in a working-class family, I often sat outside and watched the planes overhead wondering where they were going. Since we could not afford to fly anywhere, I never got to board an airplane until I was in my teens for a baseball tournament…in Ohio during the summer. There was no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. Thankfully, in my adult years I have had the great joy of travelling all over the world and taking my family with me to see sights, take pics, and make memories. Each year, I ask Grace and our kids where they want to go next and start making plans and counting down the days to our next adventure. I research what it will be like and get more excited the closer we get to our travel date.
For the Christian, reading the Bible and learning about God’s eternal heavenly Kingdom should be like that. The story of the Bible is that God is a good, loving, and providing Father. Christians are a family, which is why the Bible refers to us as “brothers” and “sisters”. The Kingdom is the Father’s culture. Heaven is the Father’s House. Sin is wandering and running from the Father so that we are “lost” as Jesus says. And, Jesus is our Big Brother sent down by the Father to show us the way Home.
What are you most looking forward to in the Father’s House?