First-hand sight of the Cosmos

"Since we cannot desire what we can't imagine, this misunderstanding has robbed us of desire for Heaven." - Randy Alcorn Heaven: Will there be space and time?

I met up with a favorite friend last night who mentioned what she's learning from Alcorn's book, Heaven. I've read a good portion of it, but have yet to finish the book. It's so good, so deep (similar at least to me, as any CS Lewis nonfiction piece) that I know I have to focus when I read it. This book has truly revolutionized my perception of my heavenly citizenship. And to be honest, every time I open it, it continues to do so.

I love how Alcorn reminds us of the grandeur yet simplicity of God. It's not that complicated ... Heaven is going to be a way better form of Earth, something that baffles me despite my whole-life church attendance. Heaven was always taught to me as a 24/7 church service. Now I've been in a lot of church services, and half of them are not something I long for. But to see that life, time, space, planets and cities, ships and nations will exist in heaven, is something I can relate to.

Alcorn compares false church doctrine to fish in the sea:

"If fish could think, try telling one, 'When you die, you'll go to fish Heaven and--isn't this great?--there will be no water! You won't have fins, and you won't swim. And you won't eat because you won't need food. I'll bet you can't wait to get there!'"

This book makes me smile so much about my future life, I almost can't stand it. Unlike the common thought that singing hymns and hearing a preacher will be (a drag) for eternity ... I always knew heaven had to be something more. For apart from church and church teaching, I did long for something more ... I do long for something more, the Bible says we YEARN for it. What a beautiful word. Yearning is what fiances do for each other before the wedding, what an adventurous spirit does the night before a flight overseas, what an expectant mother does so close to giving birth. If we look deep inside of us, the unrest, the unhappiness, the wishing for the future (especially in Christians) is not abnormal. It is expected. For inside of us is a spiritwoman eagerly awaiting her groom.

St. Augustine said it best:
You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

A groaning too big for words

There are, supposedly, about 6,000 languages spoken on the earth. Even if I knew all of those, I still wouldn't be bigger than the spirit inside me.

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." -Romans 8:26-27

Even the smartest man on earth cannot be smarter than the Spirit of God -- God's translator for our foolish, earthly thoughts. We don't know how we ought to pray, the Word says, so we are helped by a translator that turns our words into deep wordless groanings that can be understood by God. I love the ways this is worded. I love that the best way we can understand the ultimate language is by our verb: to groan. This groaning is one that stems from the depths of our hearts, our souls and verbalizes the very essence of our inside. I imagine we are like Charlie Brown and the Holy Spirit like his teacher ... our finite minds just cannot understand the above intelligence. So the Teacher swoops down to our level, swooshes through our intestines, gathers the information, then makes it better and more understandable before presenting it to God.

For He is so much higher than we. Only in the Bible are words too dull and groanings the preferred use of language. I love it.

An uncanny arrival

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
-Matthew 10:34-39

These words of Christ are certainly powerful, and I know if I were there the moment he gave them, they would have sent shivers down my spine. In a way it's not only words that are powerful, but who says them that gives them a higher degree of potency.

Last night, my husband and I talked with my parents about the possibility of us moving to Mexico. It was my father who brought up this passage ... which surprised me immensely. I have thought often of this passage when I told my parents I was going to do something they didn't want me to do or go live somewhere they didn't want me to live. A common response was the fifth commandment: honor your father and mother and your days will be long on the earth. In the growing up process I've often battled with these two seemingly opposing forces. Am I dishonoring my parents if I move to another country, if I decide to follow where I believe God is leading. Jesus clears that up in Matthew, because he knows as humans we are all at fault for selfishness. If my parent's concern for me is unselfish, and if my leading in one direction has been marked with constant prayers against the prideful nature ... I believe the two biblical truths would not rub each other so distastefully. I honor my parents by obeying God. I honor God by obeying God. If my parents are godly, then I honor Him by obeying them, for they are leading me to a stronger and deeper knowledge of worshiping Him and Him alone.

For my father to say those words, CJ and I concluded: was the miracle that is supposed to happen in every parent's life. We know we will be selfish to a degree when it comes time for us to be parents ... but if we love God more than we love each other, and if we love God more than we love our children, and if we love God more than we love our parents and our friends, our careers and our life goals ... then, like my father, we have arrived. We have arrived at the place where we trust God more than we trust our income, where we trust God more than we trust the bad news on TV, where we trust God more than our society allows us to. And we trust that our children trust God as much as we've taught them to.

This arrival must take place over and over again in our lives, poco a poco, as we ascend the invisible staircase of trusting and believing in a God our physical world blocks from our thirsty sight. May we constantly arrive at new heights, deeper depths and wider widths in Christ Jesus.