Longing for Home

Today was the conclusion of my Revelation study - and wow, what a powerful way to end it. I learned a lot of great things, but here are a few final pearls of wisdom:

1. God chose to make all things new, not all new things.

He doesn't want to scrap His creation. He doesn't want to scrap my past or yours. How can we marvel at God's grace if we forget what He has brought us through? We have to keep our testimony of redemption.

2. We can't imagine what Heaven WILL have, but we CAN understand what it will NOT have.

This was probably the most pivotal thing I realized. Heaven is so incomprehensible. But I do know what will not be in Heaven: tears, death, sorrow, mourning, crying, pain. Probably the most powerful verse I have ever read comes from Isaiah 65 where he says:

 17 “See, I will create
   new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
   nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
   in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
   and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
   and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
   will be heard in it no more.
 20 “Never again will there be in it
   an infant who lives but a few days,
   or an old man who does not live out his years..."

Never again will an infant live for only a few days. The sound of weeping and crying will be heard NO MORE.

3. The redeemed will finally BE HOME.

We will gaze upon our Heaven on earth and finally say, THIS is what I was created for. We will no longer be strangers, foreigners, or aliens. We will be home.