Heaven

We were both digging in the dirt of the garden bed when my little girl asked about heaven. I’m not as good as my husband at answering off the cuff – but I was able to weave a little of the picture: no tears, no hurt, no sadness. God would be there, and he would be the light. All the people we read about in our Bible stories would be there. And good friends who’ve said goodbye on earth will be there, too.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. ~ Rev 21:4

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. ~ Revelation 22:5

My little girl paused, absorbed in her task of rearranging dirt and finally replied, “So then there won’t ever be any bedtime?”

It made me laugh and delight in the wisdom and honesty of a little child. For this innocent little girl, no bedtime is the delight of her heart. But as we grow older, our hearts long for heaven more and more in this broken world – no more suffering of cancer or addiction, no more grief over lost loved ones, no more aching at the consequences of sin.

In heaven, all the hurt, all the tears, all the missing, all the brokenness, all the sin will be no more. It will be a land of no more dying and no more pain, filled instead with God’s light and love. Whatever hardship we endure in this life, we can rest assured that the next life will make up for it all.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us ~ Romans 8:18

Photo by Stacey Gabrielle Koenitz Rozells on Unsplash

Picture (with inserted hymn lyrics) by Noel Bauza via pixabay