Friday, May 14, 2010

Heavenly home

2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
 
I was stunned this morning to read the verses above and to consider the reality of Heaven.  Heaven is just as real as my hometown.  It's a place I will go to when this "earthly house" of a human body is no more.  Paul is eager to go there...to the eternal house made by God, Himself.  We can relate to Paul when he describes his life in the body with "groaning".  Life here is full of groaning as we contend with sin and as our body, and the frail bodies of our friends and family, suffer with sickness and inevitable decline.  Paul describes this life as the clearly inferior form of living...there will be a place to live and clothing to wear that is designed for eternity.  He says that the life of Heaven will ultimately "swallow up" this mortal version.  Many, if not most, people live in pessimism.  In the back of their minds death lurks as the end of the life experience, with life after death a great unknown.  God has give those who have trusted in Him a taste of Heaven, through the witness of His Holy Spirit in our minds and hearts.  This is our guarantee that Heaven truly lies just ahead.  As a result, we can walk by faith...in a sense seeing our eternal home before we can actually see it.  And we no longer fear death as an end, but are pleased to walk through death's door at the appointed time...to finally be in the presence of our Lord!
 
blessings to all who will one day walk in Heaven,
Rob Smith

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