A Vision of Heaven

The LORD said: “I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.” ~Isaiah 65:19 (NRSV)

During a recent rendition of Mercy Me’s, I Can Only Imagine, I found myself swept up in a torrential vision of anointing—the episode-of-possibility of my own transition into the heavenly realm.

Proof of God is hardly more perceptible than by the anticipation, or the event, of one’s death—that once-for-ever transition to be made cannot be contemplated with any sense of accuracy, yet we cannot help contemplating it.

Whenever we think of destinations so other-worldly we have to imagine the vast difference between time and eternity; as sight is concerned, one we know now, the other we know nothing about.

Foreseeing Elements of the Death or Rapture Experience

One of the truly great blessings of life is the anticipation of life’s end—if, that is, we have a positive hope for eternal life.

For an event, or set of events, that we can think long and hard about—over our lives—this event, or set of events, will overtake us in the actual experience of it.

As bodily and mental consciousness gives way to pure spiritual consciousness, with a foreseeable continuity maintained between the two worlds taking place during transfer, such that we would experience the transition from one life to another, we must simply marvel at that image; a knife-edge vision (so far as time is concerned) where time gives way, for the final time, to the majesty of eternity where time is no more.

This one-way ticket—the ride of our lives—has no action replay; there is no dress rehearsal; it is unidirectional. And God is our destiny.

Biblical Foretastes of Eternity

Another of the great blessings we can enjoy sight of, from this side of life regarding the dim view of our eternal dwelling, is thought of the abode: eternity.

If we are bound for heaven we can know, with biblical assurance, a hope that abounds realms beyond any hope we can grasp, here, in the bodily mind. Still, we can dare to dream; God limits none of this action and, indeed, may bless us all the more as we meditate on the symphony of love that awaits us.

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What is in front of us, continually drawing us toward itself, the eternal end and meaning of life, is stupendous in its scope.

Heaven may wait as it appears through our eyes-of-time, but it comes nonetheless.

The simple hope we have for eternity is just that: simple. Because it is so simple, that we cannot know it until it is finally upon us, evokes within us all the more marvelling.

Heaven, we can know, is the Grand Reconciliation—life the way it was always meant to be. And that is how we can know heaven, here and now. When we see life the way it was always meant to be.

Enjoy life. Think of death. Appreciate the difference between the two; that neither is superior to the other. Yet, all meaning is to be validated, with a resounding finality, in a realm to come. Let us stretch forward with purpose until that day.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.