How Heaven Inspires Us

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants what must soon take place.”

“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

Revelation 22:1-7

When I was a child, I always imagined heaven as a place above the clouds. I pictured having my own little cloud that I lived on and walking through a big city with streets of gold. I was scared of heaven because I thought it would be boring. Things like singing worship music to God continually sounded like a letdown. What I failed to understand is what John witnessed in the book of Revelation. In the last few chapters, John sees what the new Kingdom he was promised looks like. It is not in the clouds, and he doesn’t have a harp. Instead, John sees that heaven comes down to earth. Jesus descending for the final time ushers in a perfect earthly kingdom that stories could never perfectly describe. John can see the new Kingdom of God, which is magnificent and somewhat familiar. The imagery described in Revelation 22:1-5 is that of a garden. It would make people think of Eden, where God dwelled with Adam and Eve in perfect harmony. Like the garden, God provides food through trees. And unlike Eden, there is no sin. Christians are allowed to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life, and the Tree freely gives fruit to the people of God. Instead of the sun, the Lord brings light to this temple of the Lord. 

Does this sound like good news? Are we willing to believe this message of hope is enough to sustain us through the harsh realities of this life? Does the beauty of Jesus motivate you to live through the temptations of this world? Sin looks to isolate us from God. Instead of longing for God and His goodness, we are afraid of Him. Our hearts and minds have been distorted by sin, and at times, we choose to believe the lie that God could never love us because of our sinful hearts. Sin also causes us to see the return of Jesus as boring or less than what we could experience now in this life.

Let us not lose hope. Jesus is bringing in a Kingdom that is more beautiful than anything this life has to offer. He offers us himself, and to do that, He had to give His own life. Imagine experiencing eternal fellowship with God and choosing to leave that to redeem those who could never earn it. Jesus chose to enter into a world of sin and misery, where He would see the brokenness of sin causing sickness and death to those around Him. He witnessed how things the people clung to for hope, like wealth or worldly success, caused destruction. He came to show us that He offers something far better.

Revelation 22 shows us the promise of what Jesus was proclaiming. An eternity with God has no sin, no shortage of food, and no heartbreak. Instead, Jesus is bringing a garden temple back for His people, where we will worship Him in spirit and in truth. All our needs will be taken care of, and we will be undistracted from worshiping God, which is what we were made to do. Unhindered worship is something we will never fully experience in this life, but one day Christ in His glory will bring that to us. I’m thankful worshiping God will not mean floating on a cloud with a harp, like I thought as a child. God’s glory and eternity are brilliant, and we will only be able to imagine what it is like until Jesus returns.

How does that inspire you? Do you believe that Jesus' return is enough that worldly things seem less important? We don’t get there overnight or on our own. Daily, Christ is preparing our hearts for eternal worship. Like we prepare our hearts for the corporate gathering at church, Christ is shaping us so that we may reflect Him now and for the coming Kingdom.