My family and I went camping over Labor Day weekend about a month ago. One of the things I adore about camping is that zero requirements exist on your time, with the exception of eating. This allows for copious napping and time to just sit and think without a cloud of uselessness hanging over your head, because there is absolutely nothing requiring you to be useful. During one of these sessions, I started to think about Heaven. Not because the smoke currently bombarding my face reminded me of Heaven at all, but merely because I had been thinking about it lately.
It had struck me that we cannot hope for something we have not tasted. I am currently reading When I Don't Desire God by John Piper and he had been talking about desire and hope. With this thought then, we cannot hope for Heaven if we have not already tasted of it. Obviously, none of us has died, experienced Heaven, and then resurrected in order that we may hope for Heaven. This would make no sense whatsoever. The only other option, then, is that we experience some of Heaven on earth.
This is the idea I was mulling over while freezing in front of a Saturday morning fire which hadn't quite got up to size yet. At what points do we catch glimpses of Heaven? What are the necessary factors? And how do we even know enough about what Heaven is like to be able to see something that sparks recognition of it and causes yearning? We have all, at some point or another, probably experienced something that made us say, "That was a little bit of Heaven." I'm sure some of those times that particular statement has also stemmed from the somewhat obnoxious habit of exaggeration, or from another tendency people have to over-use phrases so they no longer have a special meaning anymore. Other times, though, it really is a foretaste of Heaven.
For fear of pinning down to a science something that I'm not sure should necessarily be understood, I don't want to lay claim to knowing when, where, or how God's children can experience those foretaste's of Heaven. Often I think they come and go so fast, because they are marred by our sin. Maybe the most obvious way is through what we read in Scripture. Images of streets of gold and jewel-studded gates inhabit our minds as something we could only dream about, but that the Bible says awaits us. I cannot help but think, however, that our finite minds have limited our ideas of Heaven to poor human images. It seems almost shameful to merely think of Heaven in terms of material riches, for if God can do far more beyond what we can ask or imagine, why would Heaven be merely the jeweled city in our minds? What makes me hopeful is the idea that Heaven is perfection, it is everything purely as God meant it to be. "Nothing impure will ever enter it [Heaven], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Revelation 21:27
I’m just finishing up a book called A Severe Mercy, and towards the end of it the main character is reflecting on the nature of time and why we always seem to be so harried by it.
“Then, if we complain of time and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest?
It suggests that we have not always been or will not always be purely temporal creatures. It suggests that we were created for eternity. Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at it- how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren’t adapted to it, not at home in it, if that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home.” (203)
Mr. Vanauken states it better than I could’ve ever done: we are made for Heaven, and therefore we long for it- all be it sometimes unknowingly. Here I will stop, all my words seeming superfluous next to his, with this one statement (again, not my words): “Therefore, since we have such a hope (in Heaven) we are very bold.” 2 Corinthians 3:12
i think, dear, that you should tell me about things like this that you are thinking. :)
ReplyDeleteI hadn't realized that you'd posted until you'd gone. I think we experience little bits of Heaven in so many ways: Lake Berryessa against a bright blue sky, the color of grapevines in the fall, dahlias so big they swallow your hand, a lap covered with a kitty blanket whilst reading a good book and drinking the perfect chai...it's those moments that take your breath away w/ the intensity and perfection of the instant-then we taste Heaven. That is why we get those longings; they are for Heaven. Life here is not the way it's supposed to be and being created in God's image we have "ah-ha" experiences where we know there is so much more.
ReplyDeleteSorry, you should've brought this up while we were walking,then I wouldn't have made such a long comment!