The other day, my five-year-old son Joel said to my wife Linda, “I don’t want to die.”
Linda responded, “But because of what Jesus did, even though we’ll die, we will live forever with Him.”
Joel looked intently at Linda and said, “That’s eternal life” (life, in Joel lingo is pronounced, “wife”--"That's eternal wife.").
Linda nodded, “Yep. And everything you love here will be there--only much better.”
To this Joel said, “Oh... I thought eternal life meant being in Ohio forever.”
...Eeeeeeks! Let’s hope not!
I like what Michael Wittmer wrote in his must-read book, Heaven is a place in Earth.
“Because the cultural mandate has never been rescinded, we may rightly expect to continue
our cultural activity on the new earth, much as we are doing now. So the new earth will be an exciting, interesting place to be. We will be always growing, always learning more about ourselves, the world, and God. We will never bottom out and become bored, for we will never know as much as God knows. There will always be some new joy to discover, some place to visit or revisit, some new dish to create, a new flower to breed, a new song to sing, a new poem to write, a new golf club to try out, a new lesson to learn and then pass on to someone else, some person to know more deeply, something new in our relationship with God. And this stretching and growing will go on forever.” (p. 207)
it's a beautiful thing when a child is talking about heaven and eternity! it's also a beautiful thing to know that we won't be spending eternity in ohio!
ReplyDeleteI love the quote from Wittmer. It captures what "life to the full" is. It also gives a window into what true community can be right now--lives intertwined; constantly growing in the knowledge of Him and each other.
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