PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• I’m doing something that hardly ever happens. I’m writing MGFL the night before I post it. Normally, I just wake up and write whatever is on my mind… but I’ve got to be up at 4 AM and out the door by 6:30 for my annual shopping trip, the Tour de Boutique. This is a special event hosted by one of the magazines I write for. Though I don’t work for the magazines in a full-time capacity anymore, I’ve held on to this event because I enjoy it so much. In fact, this is the 15th trip I’ve planned and I have so many shoppers signed up this time, we had to get an overflow van. It’s going to be a great day of fun!
It’s fun to have something to look forward to… when we’re young, we look forward to holidays and birthdays… and while our childhood enthusiasm may dim over the years, most of us look forward to those occasions with happy anticipation. Well, maybe not birthdays. I guess it depends on which one… after all, I wasted an entire year living in dread of turning 40. Seriously. I put a countdown on my phone and was so terrified of it. It seems stupid to me now. As the date leading to 45 approaches, I have a different attitude. Eh. It’s just a number. But you may want to check back with me when 50 rolls around…
With all that said, do you ever look forward to the start of eternity? I think about it all the time… the way heaven is going to be… what it’s going to be like to see Jesus face-to-face… to never get tired of singing His praises—even if my brand of singing is better described as a “joyful noise”… the everlasting peace and contentment that will be ours when we are fully sanctified and living in sinless existence with our Savior.
As much as I look forward to Tour de Boutique, Thanksgiving, and Christmas / birthday (they are one and the same), my finite brain cannot begin to do justice to what it will be like. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul quoted from Isaiah when he wrote, “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’” (ESV).
I love that—the heart of man cannot imagine the splendor of what God has created for those who love Him and who trust in Jesus. I love to imagine it, but I am certain that when I get to heaven, Jesus may elbow me and say with a wink, “Your imagination didn’t even come close, did it?”
As you go about your life and enjoy the prospect of upcoming occasions and events, remember what’s waiting on the other side of this life and smile.
Today, as you pray, thank God for His willingness to share His perfect, heavenly home with us. Thank Him that we can look forward to that time with joyful anticipation, knowing that it will exceed our wildest imaginations. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you have the courage to share with others, and feel confident to invite them to consider what lies ahead on the other side of eternity. The more the merrier, but an RSVP is required.
