Happenings 28 November 2019

The more I think about heaven, the more I wonder why people don’t think about it more. Yes, it is mysterious in many respects, but there are numerous references to it in the Bible to spark our Christian imaginations. Yes, it is out of our experience but why should that take it out of our minds? I have never been to Europe or the Holy Land, but that doesn’t stop me dreaming about these places. And we are told that God’s ‘new heaven and new earth’ is actually the home that we were made for … our current locale is one where ‘we are just a-passing through.’ I wonder if there is a cringe factor about the topic? Or do we have the hope that it is real but perhaps we not really convinced it is, and so we deliberately hold it lightly? Scripture calls us to hold this hope tightly. The New Testament view of hope is not something that may or may not happen (which is how we often use it), but something that definitely will happen – it just hasn’t happened yet! So don’t get too satisfied or distracted with the joys of this life, even though these also are God’s blessings. I love C.S. Lewis’ little quote: . . . it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when an infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased (‘Weight of Glory’). We have a hope that is sure, certain and beyond our imaginations. But may we not let this fact keep us from imagining and hoping.

In Him,
Murray