Monday, September 26, 2011

When I Wake Up Hungry

Last night I went to bed craving a bar of swiss chocolate—the kind that's loaded with so much cream it melts in my mouth before I have a chance to chew it. Today I woke up dying for a steaming, frothy latte and a thick slab of pumpkin bread, hot out of the oven.

When I quickly and hungrily climbed out of bed and almost blacked out from the exhaustion of the week I decided it would be nice to take a vacation to Italy where I'd eat loads of fresh bread and butter, heaps of cheesy pasta, and bucketfuls of gelato.

Then I remembered that I'm not allowed to put gluten, sugar, dairy, or caffeine in my body, and I concluded that heaven can't get here soon enough. Because I'll have a new body in heaven, and I'm pretty sure the lattes and chocolate there will be off. the. hook.

So I started dreaming about heaven, where my desires won't ever go unsatisfied, where my Jesus will fully fill all the empty cracks and hollows in my soul. I'm learning that letting my mind drift "further up and further in" to my heaven-home is the loveliest tour an imagination can take— it fertilizes my hope of future glory and helps me to center my heart on the place I belong.

Won't you join me as I muse?

1. I hope Turkish delight in heaven is as exquisite as Edmund thinks it is in
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

When I tasted Turkish Delight for the first time I felt certain someone was playing a joke on me. To think this supposedly smooth, creamy, and divinely sweet Turkish Delight is really just chunky jelly coated in powdered sugar. Heaven will certainly rectify this egregious culinary blunder.

2. Boy but laughter is divine, and I cannot wait to have a deep belly laugh with God. If all of the truest, wholesomest, and rip-roarin' funniest humour is just a shadow of the kind of humor that flows from God's holy character, then we are in for some right good laughs, folks. Especially when you consider that our current belly laughs are facilitated by bellies in fallen bodies. What capacity must a resurrected and perfect body (belly) have for laughing?!

3. Have you ever hiked Half Dome in Yosemite in autumn? It's spectacular. The crisp air is perfumed with traces of summer pine. The mountains rise jagged and majestic on every side, a banner of deepest blue stretched wide behind them. The trail is dotted with fragrant wildflowers, and everywhere there are deciduous trees turning vibrant shades of saffron, amber, crimson, and caramel. Around some bends in the trail there are silvery looking-glass lakes; around others are undulating waterfalls, chortling as they tumble from heights to depths.

If an orchestral symphony could be translated into visual artwork it would look like Yosemite.

Each time I survey this staggering beauty I can't help but remember this land is cursed. This is an imitation of the real thing; it's but a shadow of our heaven-home. Can you imagine what it looked like before the fall of man? I think we will know in heaven. And I hope to find autumn in some corner of heaven. I think its colors and smells are too strong and alive for my senses now, but I sure can't wait

4. Oh how I yearn for the day that I feel really, truly known. In heaven all of my dingy facades and tarnished masks will melt away with sin's soul scars and stains and I will know what it is to stand before my Creator naked, known and loved. And the best part is I will know him fully, even as I am fully known.

What must it be like to hear the voice that spoke the stars into the sky, calls dead men to life, and courses with love say my name....

5. In that same vein, I am so excited to see and really know my dear friends and family in their truest form, uninhibited by fear and unfettered by insecurity; radiant in purity and splendor as they rule and reign with Christ, more themselves they've ever been before. I think I will stand in awe at their beauty.

6. A friend recently shared this by Charles Spurgeon with me: "You may look, and study, and weigh, but Jesus is a greater Savior than you think Him to be when your thoughts are at the greatest."

Now close your eyes and picture his eyes burning love into the darkest corners of your soul, speaking compassion to your withered heart, resurrecting your deepest dreams and desires and then satisfying every yearning you've ever known.

Let your imagination plumb the depths of his goodness and love, and then remember that the Savior is much, much greater than even this. It doesn't matter how far and wide you stretch that imagination of yours, you will never approach his great compassion and loving kindness.

This is the one who fights for you, walks with you, and lives in you. Blessed be his good and holy name.

7. Okay, now it's your turn: what do you hope for in heaven?!


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© by scj

12 comments:

  1. Heaven holds, for me, the promise of color and music beyond description. Crayola box of 120 crayons, move over. Beethoven's 9th Symphony, mere child's play! Can't wait to soak it all in!!

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  2. Goosebumps once again!

    Okay, now don't laugh. But I'm totally looking forward to racing a horse at breakneck speed down a dazzling, never-ending ocean shoreline :). (So maybe what I'm really looking forward to is life at it's fullest: unleashed, uninhibited, unfettered . . .)

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  3. Jesus in Luke 17:21 says that the Kingdom of God is inside you.

    Source: http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol12No2/HV12N2Ramelli.pdf

    After studying Hinduism and Buddhism I like to think of Heaven as being enlightenment. I think Jesus was a guru that was trying to show people the true path to enlightenment.

    If you are interested in a philosophical look at Jesus and his religion:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qSCaxaUyf8

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  4. To play piano for my Saviour with abandon, and have it sound as beautiful as it is in my head. To dance without clumsiness. To sink at my Saviour's feet and thank him profusely. To see my loved ones who have gone before and bask in the glory I now can only imagine. And 20/20 vision.

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  5. Colleen,

    And you, no doubt, will be rockin' the piano in that celestial music!

    I agree, the colors in heaven will probably require a new set of eyes. ;)

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  6. Julianna,

    Yes! I would be especially happy if the horse could fly...

    A life without inhibitions will be a very different and glorious life indeed.

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  7. Matt,

    Thanks for stopping by! Interesting thoughts on heaven and enlightenment. I'm curious, how are you defining enlightenment?

    SJ

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  8. Oh I love it, Aunt Peg. You and I can cut a rug together. I can't wait. ;)

    S

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  9. I love that you were musing on being fully known at about the same time I was, in preparation for the retreat! And that is just one tiny thing that I love about this post, there is so much more!

    Heaven has many many hugs, I'm so sure of it.
    : )
    Robin

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  10. Yes, I agree, Robin. Long hugs in which our souls embrace in perfect harmony with our entwined bodies.

    It is so fun to think about the ways God was preparing me for your presentation. My thoughts about being known are just one way he tilled the soil of my heart, preparing it for your seeds of truth.

    A big ol' hug to you,

    SJ

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  11. Endless ski slopes with table-top jumps of Bernini quality! To have a footrace that will never end because my lungs will never explode!! Sleeping in a summer lawn without a single mosquito!!! To swim in laughter, soar like Superman and slip into a food coma after inhaling Christ's goodness :)

    -KK

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    Replies
    1. Ahhh, I have goooosebumps!!!! I love it, Kyler! Thanks for sharing. This is off the hook.

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