Walking With the Word

Micah 4:2-5
I used to imagine Heaven to be a place where we, as disembodied spirits, float around in white gowns singing forever.

I admit it didn’t seem overly appealing, but seemingly, if the old hymns are true, then it must be something to look forward to; something we would enjoy…

As I got to know the Bible better I realised we actually get a resurrection body just like Jesus—who was the first to become that way after rising and defeating death—and then go on to an incredible heavenly Kingdom.

The reality of this kingdom—the permanent, eternal reality where God is, and where Jesus is already King—is more ‘real’ than the physical, temporary space-time place where we currently live.

“It was the light, the grass, the trees that were different, made of some different substance, so much solider than things in our country that men were ghosts by comparison.”

The Great Divorce, C S Lewis

I also love in C S Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, where in The Last Battle, Narnia falls away and the New even more lush Narnia comes into being. Aslan calls out, “Further up and further in!,” which gave a sense of endless depth into which they would need all eternity to delve—wouldn’t that be amazing; all eternity to explore all the places one lifetime doesn’t allow us to—even though our hearts desire it…

It’s only a story, but it evokes something of what we might be able to expect: like the Earth, but renewed, better, uncorrupted, and Jesus will be there.

Throughout Scripture we are given hints of the coming Kingdom, like in Micah 4, where, “we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.”

Jesus’s coming—even as a child—was always leading to this eventual reality: the Kingdom of Heaven; Jesus as King; us with Him.

I for one am very excited about it, and grateful that in the meantime those of us in-Christ have our place there guaranteed by His indwelling Spirit, and indeed, spiritually we are already there.

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:13-14

The hope we have at Christmas is that from a baby in rags in a stable a glorious Kingdom is to come, and one day we get to join Him there.