No, We’re Not There Yet
By Carolyn Hulliberger
“…I am making everything new!”
Revelation 2:5
The day had been long, as family funerals normally are. My husband’s grandmother had died, and our family was gathered for the visitation. The time for a dinner break had come and as I began to get my then-infant son ready to go to the restaurant, my three-year-old daughter became visibly upset.
“Mommy, we can’t leave!” she cried.
“But it’s time to go eat,” I rationalized.
“No, we CAN’T LEAVE!!”
“But everyone is headed out now. Why can’t we leave?” was my answer.
“We can’t leave HEAVEN!! Great-grandma is in heaven and she’s right OVER THERE!! We can’t leave!”
I chuckle now, but explaining to a three-year-old that the part of Great-grandma that smiled, hugged, and told her stories was in heaven with Jesus…and the part she could see stayed here…well, that was a little tricky.
Jesus told us that there is another place, one where His followers will live eternally. In John 13:36, Jesus says, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” He then states, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
And when His apostles asked how to get to this place, Jesus instructed, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In the book of Revelation, we learn that there is a time and a place where “…the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them…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” (Rev. 21:3-4).
Think on this just a moment…belief in Christ…eternally living with God…a whole new order to our world…where pain is obsolete…
Even without the amazing details described in the rest of Revelation, being in the same place as Jesus is a place that I long to rest in. And even a three-year-old can grasp that once we get to be with Him in heaven and His New Kingdom, we’ll never, ever want to leave!
GOING DEEPER:
1. Have you come to see Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life? If not, what is holding you back?
2. Enjoy a quiet time today, concentrating on what it will feel like to arrive at the believer’s final destination: in the presence of God Himself…forever.
FURTHER READING:
1 Corinthians 15:55-57; Isaiah 25:8-9
Along with caring for her husband and two children, Carolyn works as an insurance representative, serves in Oakwood Church’s Student Ministries with an awesome group of junior high girls, and is the treasurer for Women’s Ministries.
