A multiplying of delight and happiness

            This is what Jonathan Edwards said about people in Heaven:

“As they increase in the knowledge of God and the works of God,

the more they will see of his excellency;

and the more they see of his excellency… the more they will love him;

and the more they love God,

the more delight and happiness… will they have in him.”

            I’ve been reading Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven, and it keeps prodding more thoughts about where I am headed. What a relief – and joy! –  to have something to be looking forward to past this life and for eternity.

            I’ve been thinking about the Carpenter who is lovingly building me a home - specifically designed for me! I am confident that the One who made me (with all my characteristics, talents, likes, and quirks) will have all kinds of delightful surprises for me and I can’t wait for Him to give me a tour of this magnificent place He has just for me!! I’m certain that for a few millennia I’m going to be busy with the grand piano that will be in my music room! I’ll be playing my heart out for my Audience of One with all kinds of music, including my own.

            The quote from this morning just continues those thoughts and dreams. Sometimes you feel like life is just – hard. And it is! Not always, I know, but definitely there are seasons of hard.

            But even in those seasons we can see God – and His excellency! For the Bible tells us truth in the statement “God is good and what He does is good.” Do I always understand it? No. Do I always like it? No! But then again, I am only seeing the bottom of the tapestry and the tangled pieces of thread – not the glorious picture He is making. (Hmmm – I wonder if that tapestry might be hanging on a wall in my new home ~ to remind me of how God wove my life and how He sees me…)

            Right now, here in life, when I choose to set my eyes on Him – and not get bogged down in the hard – it truly does magnify God’s wisdom and beauty and excellency - which in turns produces more love of my Abba. How very kind of God to allow all of that to give me delight and happiness!

Finding myself ~ homesick

       At a writer’s seminar I recently attended, the speaker emphasized the importance of a good reading plan. I knew making a list for 2014 wouldn’t be too difficult as I had a pile of books on my “to read” shelf. From the category of Theology, I pulled the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn and have been slowly making my way through.

        It has occurred to me that I don’t have a lot of confident understanding about this place I am headed to when this part of my life is over. In fact, I cannot remember the last time even hearing a message on Heaven. So, that is the premise for why I am studying it now. (And, if I may be so bold, perhaps a gentle nudge to my pastor friends… other than at a funeral, when was the last time you studied fresh and taught on this subject to encouraged your congregation with thoughts of eternity?)

        As I read, I am finding myself homesick for a place I have yet to visit. That feeling reminds me of a couple of summers ago when Tim and I took our trip to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. I have dreamed of visiting Prince Edward Island since I was 12 years old and my Grammy brought me back the Anne of Green Gables books as a memento from her own trip to PEI.

        I have read those books over and over – anticipating the day when I would walk on the island myself. Yes, I know the books are fiction… but Prince Edward Island is real and the author wrote about what she saw and knew. When we drove across the bridge and my feet touched the soil, I truly felt like I had come home! And during the week, as we drove all over that magnificent island, my eyes were wide open and all my senses on high alert trying to take in and capture every little thing I saw, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted.

        The day we boarded the ship to head to Nova Scotia, I actually cried. I turned to Tim and asked how I could feel so sad to leave a place I had only been to for 5 days? Since then, I memories from our trip bring on a twinge of homesickness and a hope for a return to my island.

        Which brings me to Heaven – as I am studying and learning more about my new home, I find myself homesick for a place I am not only going to visit but live! The more I study the more I cannot wait until I can:

        ~ run into my Savior’s arms and feel His embrace

        ~ hear His voice tell me He loves me and is so glad I am home

        ~ play some songs I have written for my Audience of One

        ~ explore and make new discoveries about my new home

        ~ meet Joseph, David, Ruth, Isaiah, Daniel, Mary, John, Peter,

          Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, Barnabas and the list goes on!

        That list just is the start and I can’t help but echo the thoughts and longing of these two old songs:

Just think of stepping on shore, and finding it heaven
of touching a hand, and finding it God's
of breathing new air, and finding it celestial
of waking up in Glory, and finding it "Home."

“Oh that will be glory for me…

when by His grace I shall look on His face,

 that will be glory, be glory for me!”