When I was a child I would often get very excited about going to certain things like the county fair, the park, the pool, the book sale, etc. I would get impatient when adults seemed to be dragging their feet. I always wanted them to hurry up as if every fun activity or awesome thing would be gone if they dilly dallied. As I’ve gotten older, my perspective has shifted and I now generally fear that whatever I’m going to do or see is honestly not as great as I thought it would be. For whatever reason, things just seem more fantastic to children. For example, when I was in middle school my mom took me on a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. It was fabulous! I LOVED it! So when my husband and I had a chance to go to Baltimore to pick up his parents from the airport I poured out somewhat excessive praise for the Baltimore (now called National) Aquarium. So the day after my in-laws flew in, we drove over to the aquarium but alas it was not as I remembered. A docent informed us the BIG tunnel you used to walk through with the fish all swimming over and around you had been replaced. It was literally not the same as I remembered it to be. If we had planned the visit better, we could have seen some more dolphin shows etc. but in comparison to the much smaller Mote Aquarium we went to in Florida the price wasn’t worth it. It was nice, but it didn’t live up to my memory.
“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him’” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Bible writers have left us a few descriptions of heaven and the new earth. But as the apostle Paul reminds us, we cannot fathom what that will truly be like. I can imagine some pretty awesome things like being able to go snorkeling with the fish and not fear being eaten by a shark, running with the cheetahs and not growing tired, seeing all the angels and the Lord in splendor and glory, etc. but nothing, NOTHING will compare to what the Lord has in store for us. And when it comes down to it… what was the best part of our day at the aquarium? The time spent with family. The only time I get to see my husband for a whole day is when we are on vacation, and I hadn’t seen his parents for a couple of years. I know when I was a child and I would think about heaven, I often visualized it as a place where I would float on a cloud and eat basically anything I wanted. But as the years roll by, my perspective of heaven, just like the aquarium, has changed and now I look forward to heaven because I’ll be able to spend eternity with the people I love including Jesus.
I remember when Ryan and I were dating someone asked who in history you would talk to if you could go back in time and while I was thinking about people like Leonardo da Vinci or Cleopatra Ryan immediately said “Jesus.” What a concept! I hadn’t even thought of Him! The one person I should consider before all others hadn’t even come to mind. In heaven, we will have unlimited time to spend with Jesus. The question is do I know Him enough to want to spend time with Him? “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Maybe this side of eternity I won’t be able to speak with Jesus face to face. Very few people in history have had that kind of relationship with Him. And even then those people have only scratched the surface of who Jesus is since, as the scripture says, we will continue to learn about Jesus and God throughout eternity. But how can we know God now? “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). Each day we have the opportunity to witness for God and be a little bit of heaven on Earth to others. As we love others, and as we pray and study the scriptures, the love of God will expand and grow in our hearts.
Whatever food will be in heaven or whatever beautiful animals we’ll get to see and play with comes last in the list of desirable things about heaven. What a blessing that we can look forward to with childlike joy and enthusiasm, knowing that love will reign supreme. Heaven won’t just meet our high expectations, it will far exceed them!