beyond the sun

Revelation 21:²³ The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

Our sun is the nearest star, as we know.  It has a finite life and will eventually cool, or possibly explode into a supernova.  Obviously human life will not be here at that point (now we're talking several billion years from now according to scientists).  The sun had a beginning too and, really, it's like a giant battery driven light source up in the sky.  We also have a finite life on the planet.  Each of us was born...has a life...and will die when our personal "battery" runs out of juice.  So the "end of the world" is definitely going to come...whether by some rogue asteroid that knocks us out of orbit, or some man-made conflict that contaminates the atmosphere, or by the end of our natural days, or by the cooling of the sun.  Clearly, the natural world runs its course.  But we have come to know that there is life beyond the sun when the Son rises in our hearts and we are restored to the One who fashioned sun, earth and all of life.  And as difficult as it is to picture a universe without a sun...it is even more amazing to realize that the light of Heaven will come from a source that has no end.  The glory of God is the light we will experience for eternity and we will always be touched by the rays of that illumination.  I suppose the key for us now is to realize that His illumination already provides the true light...

John 8:¹² Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."