That First Jaw-dropping Revelation to Us of Heaven
There used to be a TV show called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". I was just listening to one of my favorite Christian songs ("Welcome Home Children", which can be found on the "Music" page of this website at https://pastormerrill.wixsite.com/website/blank-6), when I thought of a comparison of that TV show and our "first jaw-dropping revelation of Heaven. (Another song on the "Music" page is "I Can Only Imagine", and that title goes good here as well.) In the TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" they always came to a place where they returned the occupants from an all-paid vacation to their rundown home, that had been undergoing an extreme makeover during the week the people were on vacation. The people are brought back in a limo in such a way as not to be able to see their house, and are then parked behind a big bus that continues to block their view. After asking the question "Do you want to see your new home?" they are all called on to shout "Move that bus!" so they can see their made-over house for the first time. When they do so, the bus drives away and then we see their facial reactions. Some families vary in intensity, but let me write here of what the best in my opinion are like. The eyes widen and fill with tears, and the jaw drops open in utter joy, amazement, and expressing a feeling of utter unworthiness of seeing their old home transformed into a new thing of glorious beauty! But that's not all! Then they are asked if they want to see THE INSIDE! Of course they do, and they are taken to the front door and let inside. Their mouths drop open again and tears come to their eyes at the beauty and riches they behold. They find that things have been built to cater to their specific needs and desires. They are taken on a tour from room to room, and then into the backyard, and are continually met with more and more wonderful things done especially for them.
Shifting scenes now, imagine Jesus, the Creator of the universe, the Creator of all the natural wonders, having been at work for us creating a special place designed especially for us, the children He dearly loves (Jn 14:2). He leaves nothing out in His ability to create the most beautiful and most experientially functional place for us to live in with Him, to enjoy with no end. We have never seen anything like it before, because there has never been anything on Earth like it before. We see beautiful colors and things we have never seen before, hear beautiful sounds we have never heard before, feel things in our hearts and in our senses we have never felt before. We may have more than just our five, current senses, to be better able to experience and enjoy more than was ever possible for anyone to have ever experienced before. Not only do we see these glories of Heaven, we see how wonderful we ourselves have become, for as 1Co 15:51 says "we shall be changed". Not only will we see the glories of Heaven, the glory of the change that has happened to us and others, we will see the glory of the LORD Himself, being far more wonderful than was ever painted, written, or imagine from anyone on Earth. No one will have to tell us to "worship" the LORD. Everything ("all that is within me" Psa 103:1) will not be able to be stopped from the overwhelming desire to WORSHIP the LORD.
Jesus says in Mt 25:34 "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." He does not say that to everyone, but to those that have received Him as Savior and Lord, but that's another message.
There used to be a TV show called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". I was just listening to one of my favorite Christian songs ("Welcome Home Children", which can be found on the "Music" page of this website at https://pastormerrill.wixsite.com/website/blank-6), when I thought of a comparison of that TV show and our "first jaw-dropping revelation of Heaven. (Another song on the "Music" page is "I Can Only Imagine", and that title goes good here as well.) In the TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" they always came to a place where they returned the occupants from an all-paid vacation to their rundown home, that had been undergoing an extreme makeover during the week the people were on vacation. The people are brought back in a limo in such a way as not to be able to see their house, and are then parked behind a big bus that continues to block their view. After asking the question "Do you want to see your new home?" they are all called on to shout "Move that bus!" so they can see their made-over house for the first time. When they do so, the bus drives away and then we see their facial reactions. Some families vary in intensity, but let me write here of what the best in my opinion are like. The eyes widen and fill with tears, and the jaw drops open in utter joy, amazement, and expressing a feeling of utter unworthiness of seeing their old home transformed into a new thing of glorious beauty! But that's not all! Then they are asked if they want to see THE INSIDE! Of course they do, and they are taken to the front door and let inside. Their mouths drop open again and tears come to their eyes at the beauty and riches they behold. They find that things have been built to cater to their specific needs and desires. They are taken on a tour from room to room, and then into the backyard, and are continually met with more and more wonderful things done especially for them.
Shifting scenes now, imagine Jesus, the Creator of the universe, the Creator of all the natural wonders, having been at work for us creating a special place designed especially for us, the children He dearly loves (Jn 14:2). He leaves nothing out in His ability to create the most beautiful and most experientially functional place for us to live in with Him, to enjoy with no end. We have never seen anything like it before, because there has never been anything on Earth like it before. We see beautiful colors and things we have never seen before, hear beautiful sounds we have never heard before, feel things in our hearts and in our senses we have never felt before. We may have more than just our five, current senses, to be better able to experience and enjoy more than was ever possible for anyone to have ever experienced before. Not only do we see these glories of Heaven, we see how wonderful we ourselves have become, for as 1Co 15:51 says "we shall be changed". Not only will we see the glories of Heaven, the glory of the change that has happened to us and others, we will see the glory of the LORD Himself, being far more wonderful than was ever painted, written, or imagine from anyone on Earth. No one will have to tell us to "worship" the LORD. Everything ("all that is within me" Psa 103:1) will not be able to be stopped from the overwhelming desire to WORSHIP the LORD.
Jesus says in Mt 25:34 "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." He does not say that to everyone, but to those that have received Him as Savior and Lord, but that's another message.
