Thoughts on Heaven

I was teaching a Sunday School lesson on Heaven and found this little piece below. The author isn’t known:

“As I get older, I find that I appreciate God and people and good and lovely and noble things more and more intensely; so it is pure delight to think that this enjoyment will continue and increase in some form literally forever. In fact Christians inherit the destiny which fairy tales end with: we (yes, you and I, the silly saved sinners) live and live happily, and by God’s endless mercy will live happily ever after.

We cannot visualize heaven’s life and the wise man will not try to do so. Instead he will dwell on the doctrine of heaven, where the redeemed will find all their heart’s desire: joy with their Lord, joy with His people, and joy in the ending of all frustration and distress and in the supply of all wants. What was said to the child—"If you want sweets and hamsters in heaven, they’ll be there”—was not an evasion, but a witness to the truth that in heaven no felt needs or longings go unsatisfied. What our wants will actually be, however, we hardly know, except the first and foremost: we shall want to be “always...with the Lord”.

What shall we do in heaven? Not lounge around, but worship, work, think, and communicate, enjoying activity, beauty, people, and God. First and foremost, however, we shall see and love Jesus, our Savior, our Master, and our Friend.”

Richard Baxter wrote:

My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim,
But it’s enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with him.

To those who have learned to love and trust Jesus, the prospect of meeting Him face to face and being with Him forever is the hope that keeps us going, no matter what life may throw at us.