Heaven on Earth

 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.~ Rev 21:2-3

I think the concept of heaven on earth took me a very long time to grasp. I think our mind easily grasps concepts that play to our dualistic tendencies. Good and Evil. God and the devil. Life and death. Heaven and earth.

But scripture clearly teaches that one day heaven and earth will be involved in some kind of divine merger. God is restoring all things and will renew all things, in Christ.

And here comes the painful truth. It is hard for a Christian to hear, but there is a very real sense in which God is not with us.

Don't burn me at the stake.  I am ready to demonstrate the validity of this statement.

Yes, God is omnipresent. He is everywhere, and so we are never apart from him.
Yes, he dwells within the believer and makes his home in them by the Holy Spirit, and so our bodies are his temple and we know his presence at all times (and sometimes even feel it!).

There is not a minute or a second, or even a millisecond in your life when God is not present with you. He was there at your conception, he was knitting you together in the womb, he was watching over all your ways as you grew into adulthood, and he will be as the very breath in your lungs as you draw your last. He is Yahweh Shammah. He is absolutely, the God who is there. In Joy and in despair. In sickness and in health. Through it all he is faithful, through it all he is good.

And yet, there is a sense in which he is not here.

Because, Christian, this life as it is, is not the final design. This experience of his presence is not as good as it gets.

No.

It is a foretaste, that is all. Only a foretaste. Your most intimate and mind-blowing moments with God now......they are a shadow of the things to come. They are a seeing through a 'glass darkly' in contrast to the vivid sharpness of the colourful reality of his presence that will be revealed.

Then, he says, God's dwelling place will be with the people. He will live with them.You see, even back in the garden of Eden ,the picture was established when God walked with Adam in the cool of the evening. He had a dwelling with God like no man since.

We are told that Moses had the kind of relationship where God spoke to him face to face, as a man speaks to a man.

Even these things were a foreshadowing of the glory yet to be revealed.

The reality, the scripture tells us, is found in Christ.

And that is why, even though our delight is in God, our hearts still yearn for more, yearn for our eternal dwelling, and the spirit interprets our yearnings, not into words but into moans and groans that words cannot express. Yes, we yearn and long for this final redemption along with all of creation (see yesterday's blog).

So do not be discouraged if this day your walk with God is not all it could be. it is not a bad thing to want more, not at all, but I think we need at times to rid ourselves of the burden of perfection. This will never be all it should be until our we reach this day....when our Journey home is finally complete.

And just think how good it will be, if the goodness of God that we have tasted so far, was just the sampler plate? Wait until you see the full menu!

Oh Lord, we have tasted and seen that you are good, and we thank you that our souls delight in 'the richest of fare' , but we continue to long and yearn for you, until we arrive in our eternal home, when we shall see you face to face, and be changed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall see you, and be like you.

For this we yearn, Our eternal home with you,
We yearn in holy restlessness,

This day,
And all days.

Amen.