Today, I was reminded of something and thought I would write you all about it. We are getting ready to start a series at my church about Heaven and I was thinking through some options for the worship time that would tie into the messages. I was thinking about how so many of the hymns of the Church expressed such hope for Heaven. At church we talk about Heaven as more of the ultimate vacation spot destination rather then our true home for eternity. Mercy Me a few years back sang about it in the songs “Homesick”
I close my eyes and I see your face
If home’s where my heart is then I’m out of place
Lord, won’t you give me strength to make it through somehow
I’ve never been more homesick than now
In modern days I think we’ve lost our desire for Heaven, maybe it’s due to our overwhelmed and overfilled lives here on earth but it makes me sad when I think of my own life and the conversations with others that we aren’t more homesick for that glorious place where we will see Jesus face to face.
For alot of years my grandmother was sick and suffered here on earth from many sicknesses and diseases. She fought for a long time and I remember many conversations with her where she talked and longed for Heaven. She had a real desire to make it here on earth till the rapture and be a part of that amazing day when Jesus returns for us. Her time on earth ended and she already went to be with Jesus in Heaven. It’s been fifteen years in fact but she made a huge impression on me when it comes to this subject of Heaven.
I know our lives here on earth are filled with great things. We fly through the air on airplanes. We send large amounts of data and files through the “internet” whatever it is 🙂 in a matter of seconds. We have iPads and gadgets galore. Stuff fills our calendars and often times our hearts. All the stuff of this earth could never compare to the day we see Jesus face to face. We were created to be in fellowship with Him and bring honor and praise to God. In Heaven we will get to do just that without any evil or sin.
What do you think those people of days gone by that wrote the hymns of the church were thinking about and long for? What made them sing about Heaven in a way that modern songwriters don’t (at least very often)? These are the questions I ponder this afternoon.
Revelation 21:21 The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
Revelation 4:8 Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy,holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.