I’m reading a book by Randy Alcorn called Heaven. He reminds his readers that we should not think of heaven (that is, the eternal state) as an ethereal, intangible, non-physical place. Isaiah and Revelation repeatedly describe the eternal state in terms of the New Heavens and the New Earth. We can get excited about living on earth for eternity, where the beauty of earth will be unblemished (like these Turkish wildflowers in the picture), where we will delight ourselves in perfect relationship with Christ and with each other, and where there will be endless discoveries at our fingertips… for eternity! But it’s hard to get excited about sitting on cloud strumming a harp, because that’s not what we were made for and that’s not what Christ is preparing for us! The New Earth is our true home. This earth is a fallen shadow of what awaits us.
Randy Alcorn reminds us that we will be eternally satisfied in heaven because God is the only true source of our joy, both now and forever:
“We may imagine we want a thousand different things, but God is the one we really long for. His presence brings satisfaction; his absence brings thirst and longing. Our longing for Heaven is a longing for God – a longing that involves not only our inner beings, but our bodies as well. Being with God is the heart and soul of Heaven. Every other heavenly pleasure will derive from and be secondary to his presence. God’s greatest gift to us is, and will always be, himself.” (Alcorn, Heaven, 171)
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