Today’s Advent devotional was written by a special guest contributor and New World church member, Kate Baird.
Images of heaven, as we can only imagine, are everywhere:
· White shores, and beyond a far green country under a swift sunrise.
Gandalf to Pippin in J.R.R. Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings”
· “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. … And that is why…the Blessed will say “We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, :and the Lost, “We were always in Hell.”
C.S. Lewis
· A large banquet table with a place set for every individual.
The Gospels
· For me personally, it is a piano where my Aunt is sitting at the keys, her sister is sitting next to her turning the pages, and all my aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles and cousins are singing whatever the next page is in the hymnal…after a hearty dinner at the banquet table and naps in the hammocks that hang between the clouds.
I need to pause throughout my busy days and busy life and reflect on heaven periodically. I could spend an hour on C.S. Lewis’s quote alone with its mysteries that resonate as truth. Just considering Heaven for this blog has raised my HOPE, increased the LIGHTness of my heart, soothed my anxiousness with PEACE, while I WAIT for that day. I’m not in a hurry, but I’m not afraid at all. How sweet it will be to walk with the one who loves me more than anyone – and I am very well-loved now! You are well-loved now too! That’s how I know heaven will be amazing. My limited abilities can’t register the fullness of it.
Think of it:
Suffering replaced with wholeness and joy.
Sorrow replaced with dancing and smiles.
Fear replaced with perfect love for others because we can’t mess up anymore!
What is the advantage of not accepting Heaven as a possibility? If you believe you can impact others with the weather you take with you into a room, into a meeting, into a restaurant, into a hospital, into our social media posts, onto an airplane. Wouldn’t it be best to take the weather influenced by a heavenly hope and light? Imagine the positive storm system we could create. Heaven on earth.
Mission and Art 