|
ALWAYS TRADING UP #2
NO CHALUPAS IN HEAVEN
I have a little fantasy I’d like to indulge — and this
is especially for those of you listening on WWDJ in New York City. The
next time I’m in the Big Apple on business for the Voice of Prophecy,
I just wish one of you listening there would be kind enough to take me
out to dinner at Alain Ducasse’s new restaurant there in the Essex House.
It’s only about $160 a dinner, per person, from their renowned prix fixe
or fixed-price menu, and I promise not to order a lot of appetizers. And
you all know I don’t drink, so that would save you about $600 there too.
Newsweek magazine says that Ducasse’s is THE place to eat these days,
and I just hope one of you kind-hearted listeners will remember me with
your generosity.
Well, having said that — and those of you who know me know I’m speaking
ENTIRELY tongue-in-cheek — I’d like to share some food thoughts from both
the low end and the even-higher-than-Ducasse’s end here on our Tuesday
broadcast on the heavenly topic: ALWAYS TRADING UP.
In her book, In the Surprising By and By, Deborah Anfenson-Vance shares
an essay on the topic of food in the eternal kingdom. Maybe you thought
that old Southern Gospel song about the great banquet table in heaven
was mythical; well, Deborah doesn’t think so. Here’s what she writes:
“Today I gave a good share of my writing time to baking cookies with my
four-year-old daughter. We had fun and made a mess. I can’t think of one
good reason we won’t be able to do the same thing in heaven, providing
we don’t eat too much raw cookie dough.”
Have you ever thought of heaven as a place where cookie
dough — and cookies — are available? Where angels might eat pizza? (I
know that actor Denzel Washington, playing a heavenly angel sent back
down to earth in the film The Preacher’s Wife, had a centuries-long craving
for pizza, but who said Hollywood scriptwriters knew anything about the
realities of heaven?)
We recently had some Christian friends from Thailand visit our studios
here in California. The young man, who manages a trip to the U.S. about
once every couple of years, was asked what his favorite thing about America
was. He answered without hesitation: “Oh, the chalupas at Taco Bell. We
don’t have any of those in Bangkok.” But will heaven be a place where
you just can’t get a good Mexican meal, and they don’t have hot sauce
wrappers?
Christians who want to discover the realities of heaven don’t have tons
of biblical ammunition to rely on, and we already read yesterday’s warning
from the Bible that our imaginations are absolutely NOT up to the task
of envisioning the splendors of that land which is fairer than day. But
we DO have Isaiah chapter 65, and I want you to notice with me that it
DOES talk about eating. Not specifically chalupas, but there IS a menu.
Notice:
“They [the saved] will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and EAT their fruit. No longer will they build
houses and OTHERS live in them, or plant and OTHERS eat.”
Back in chapter 62, Isaiah reaffirms this concept of
real food and real eating. Those who harvest grain, he writes, will eat
it themselves. They’ll gather their own grapes and enjoy drinking the
juice.
It’s a breakthrough thought to many Christians to even discover in the
Bible that we will have real bodies at all, that there will be such a
thing as taste buds and stomachs. It’s commonly taught that heaven is
nothing more than an abode for spirits, some “ethereal essence” of a person,
which survives death and exists in the abode of the blessed. But bodies
and work and play and food and chalupas — or even bread and juice? No,
their concept of heaven doesn’t permit anything so REAL. And again, we
struggle to believe that when we go to heaven, we will be ALWAYS trading
UP. Including at the dinner table. We find it hard to understand that
as real as our food is here, it will be more real, more wonderful, more
memorable THERE. Always MORE.
Over in Luke 24, right after the crucifixion story, we find a marvelous
glimpse into the ways of heaven. Jesus Christ has come out of the tomb,
of course. He’s been resurrected to new, eternal life. And friend, I think
it’s safe to say that whatever form HE had as our resurrected Lord, we
too can look forward to having when we stand on the Sea of Glass. Christ
is our Elder Brother, the firstfruits, the Bible says, of those who sleep.
We’ll talk more about the promises of First Corinthians 15 regarding the
“(quote) imperishable body, the glorified body, the powerful body, the
spiritual body” we’re going to enjoy there. But back here in Luke 24,
our Savior, Jesus, raised in splendor with a body that will never die
again, appears to His disciples in the upper room. He has a kind of body
that can suddenly appear or disappear; He can move right through solid
walls, it seems. But the men SEE Him; He’s visible. He can talk and be
heard; He has a voice. And one more thing: He also has an appetite.
Isn’t that marvelous news? The first thing this wonderful God-slash-Man
says to them is: “Peace be unto you.” Then He says, “Don’t be afraid.
I’m not a ghost. I’ve got hands and feet, flesh and bones. Touch Me; feel
Me.”
And then, do you know what He says the very next thing? Immediately? “Hey,”
He says. “I’m hungry. What’s there to eat around here, guys?” And He sits
down with His heavenly body, and His heavenly lips and tongue and digestive
tract, and He eats some broiled fish with His 11 best friends.
Listen, friend, heaven is a very real place we can GO, and when we get
there, we’re going to find plates and cups and spoons, knives, and forks.
That’s the clear teaching in the Word of God.
But you might say: “What about the concept of trading UP? Down here we
have caviar and Ducasse’s and $160 bottles of wine. And chalupas, if you’re
so inclined. All we’ve heard from you so far regarding the Tuesday specials
in heaven are grain, grape juice, and maybe a piece of broiled fish. Where’s
the magic in that?”
I want to tell you a little food story coming from one of my favorite
books, written long ago by the great C. S. Lewis. We’ve used this volume
before on the program; it’s entitled Perelandra. “Sanctified Christian
science fiction” is probably the best description I could give, and in
the story, God uses a man from earth named Ransom to travel to a holy,
unfallen world, this planet called Perelandra. It’s a pure, unspoiled
virgin world; in fact, it is essentially the Eden moment in that beautiful
world’s young history. And for several days, since the place appears uninhabited,
this Ransom just walks around, exploring. It is SO pristine, so far beyond
any beauty he’s ever seen before.
And then two things happen. He sees a grove of trees, and there appear
to be huge bubble-like things hanging from them. He gets closer to take
a look, and then gingerly pokes a finger into one of the bubbles. Instantly
he’s sprayed with the most marvelous kind of shower: cold-but-pleasant,
invigorating, refreshing. In fact, he feels like he just woke up; until
now, he was seeing Perelandra almost through a sleepy daze or looking
at it through a dirty car windshield. He’s never felt so fantastic, so
alive, so abundant. And there are literally thousands of these bubble
trees; he could have the experience every three minutes if he wanted,
but it seems almost obscene to enjoy it more than once a day.
And then, a bit later, still looking around with his new sparkly vision,
he comes to another tree. And there’s some kind of fruit hanging on it.
It’s small, kind of round; he never saw anything like THIS on earth. He
gets up his courage and pulls one free, and then turns it over and over
and around, until he figures out how to pull the skin free and sample
the juice inside.
And . . . oh my! It is a taste beyond any taste he’s ever had, beyond
any taste any man or woman has ever had. It’s not creamy, not sweet, not
tart, not succulent. No, it’s more than all those words. It’s a sensory
experience that eclipses any possible thing earth could offer. It’s a
whole new genus of pleasure, Lewis writes, an elevated moment far, far,
far beyond anything you could find at Ducasse’s or Taco Bell or even in
Mama’s kitchen on a Sunday afternoon. Forget it. You can’t get anywhere
CLOSE to this on planet earth. Just . . . no way.
And again, there are millions of these trees around. You could eat like
this, gorge on this unbelievable fruit 24 hours a day . . . but it is
so wonderful that Ransom almost feels like eating is a holy experience,
and that he should ration himself to just one or two a day.
Well, friend, that’s fiction . . . and yet it’s not fiction. Because even
at mealtime up there, these words of Scripture ring in our minds just
like the supper bell:
“No mere man has ever seen, heard, or even imagined”
— or TASTED, we might add — “what wonderful things God has ready for those
who love the Lord.”
Is it sacrilegious to imagine Jesus in that tall white
hat? The heavenly chef? Saying, “Dinner is served. Come and get it”?
|
