My husband Sam and I recently went on a beach vacation to celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary. One night of our getaway was particularly magical; we had a sunset dinner on a pier hovering over the ocean. As we gazed at the breathtaking view, I said to Sam, “As insanely beautiful as this night is, I feel like it is only a tiny glimpse of how beautiful it will be in heaven.”
His response stopped me in my tracks: “You’re right, but I actually think the true beauty of heaven is how we are going to feel rather than what it will look like -- although I do agree it will be beautiful.”
Talk about a proud wife moment! Sam gave a beautiful reminder of Jesus’ description of heaven -- the place where there will be no more death, crying, sickness or pain. EVER. Forever. It’s impossible to wrap my mind around how euphoric heaven will feel.
Our conversation got me thinking about how little time I spend focusing on heaven, and how much time I spend pondering material things and goals of this world. Granted, I’m in my mid-twenties and pray I have a long life ahead, but it dawned on me that I can and should be following Jesus’s instruction to spend more energy focusing on the eternal freedom I (and all Christians) have thanks to His sacrifice.
Living life with a heaven-bound perspective -- rooted in faith in Jesus -- is the key to accessing God’s peace in a challenging and hectic world.
“One road leads home, and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness,” Christian writer C.S. Lewis once said. Our thoughts -- from what we daydream about to things we obsess over -- have a stronghold on our lives. What we think about almost always determines the direction we will go. Most Christians remember the stern Biblical warnings about the negative results of our sinful thoughts, but do enough of us focus on all the good that can come from focusing on the RIGHT things?