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ALWAYS TRADING UP #5
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE!
George was a guy who had what we would all call “the
good life.” He got up every morning feeling absolutely fantastic: not
an ache anywhere, not a tired cell in his body. He always started off
with a quick jog — invariably in perfect weather, it seemed. Then some
quiet time for his devotions: prayer and meditation about his relationship
with God. Then a shower and a fantastic breakfast enjoyed with Mary.
Then . . . off to work. And George loved his work. He had all the latest
gadgets: a high-end computer, high-speed modems and Internet, high-tech
toys of every conceivable make and model, and he loved adding the latest
thing to his collection. All day long, he simply REVELED in what he did
for a living. It was fun; it was fulfilling. He got a kick out of each
new challenge, and just went around the office, connecting with colleagues
and saying every 20 minutes: “Isn’t life good? Aren’t we having the greatest
time?”
After work — and it really wasn’t that long of a workday, despite how
much George liked it — he always had time for a game of tennis. Or softball
with the men’s league. Or a hobby. Or time with Sarah at a museum or dabbling
in the painting or music she loved so much. There were moments of worship
together — just the two of them — or with all their friends. Suppers were
always magnificent affairs: about half the time elegant, and the other
half the time just a red checkered tablecloth picnic in the back yard,
watching the waterfalls and the ducks waddling by. The scenery was to
die for where he lived, by the way. And there were fun things to do in
the evenings: digital TV entertainment, music, more hobbies, time with
friends.
Then bed. Even though George never really felt tired in a what-a-terrible-week-I’m-having
way, those cool silk sheets felt just right after such a full and fulfilling
day. And as he drifted off to sleep each evening, he couldn’t help but
think to himself: “Boy, tomorrow’s going to be even better. What a life
I lead!”
Well, friend, I guess it sound like a Jimmy Stewart movie, doesn’t it?
What a Wonderful Life! Who is this George anyway, and how can the rest
of us get to the tropical desert island, this Fantasyland where he seems
to live?
Would it surprise you if I were to suggest, or even whisper a HINT, that
this is the life that George and Mary — and maybe you and me — are going
to enjoy in heaven? Was what I just described to you an actual day in
Paradise, or what the Bible calls “the earth made new”?
And you say: “All right, Melashenko, hold everything! You just mentioned
driving to work. Will there be CARS in heaven? And JOBS? Physical houses?
Softball games? Tennis courts? I don’t find any tennis courts in the Bible!”
Although Christians sometimes joke about how Joseph SERVED in the courts
of Pharaoh.
Well, we’ve already established that there WILL be things like houses
and gardens. Mealtimes. Animals. People we can recognize, with real bodies
and hands that can still hold a bunch of grapes or a loaf of bread. So
there WILL be SOME things up there that are real and tangible. But tennis
courts and computers? No, the Bible doesn’t mention those. And when we
propose, here on The Voice of Prophecy, a radio series title like ALWAYS
TRADING UP, you might honestly think that we’re going to be trading DOWN
instead: no more golf games, no computers, no CD collections, no DVDs,
no snow skiing, no microwave meals. No Taco Bells or Haagen-Dazs. We remember
the Harry Anderson paintings we’ve seen, where everyone is wearing a white
robe, maybe picking flowers and petting lions, and wading in the creek.
But Harry didn’t put a tennis racket in anybody’s hand, and he never portrayed
someone booting up their laptop to e-mail a friend from another galaxy
far, far away.
I have to remind you again — and myself as well, certainly — that the
Bible was written long before there WERE laptops. Or softball diamonds.
But God’s Word emphatically tells us that heaven will be BEYOND our imaginations,
not BELOW it. We will never trade DOWN, always UP. Everything there will
be better, happier, funner. More inventive, not less. More high-tech,
not less. (In only positive ways, of course.)
A couple of resource books we’ve used this week have marvelously expanded
our minds, and I know authors Chris Blake and Samuele Bacchiocchi would
be the first to say they will blush with embarrassment when they get to
heaven and see how LOW, how pale, their word pictures of heaven are. But
in his bestseller, Resurrection or Immortality?, Bacchiocchi writes:
“Life in the new earth will not be spent in idleness or passive meditation,
but in productive activity and creativity. Those who think that the redeemed
will live in the new world as glorified guests, fed, housed, and entertained
by God, are totally misled. The new earth is not a kind of Disneyland
magic world where God provides endless free rides to everyone. There will
be no ‘free-loaders’ in the world to come.”
I remember thinking that in heaven I would have a bit
of “Samantha” power, like the lady on Bewitched who could just wrinkle
her nose and have miracles happen. She basically blinked, and the table
would be set for supper. But the Bible tells us instead that we will ENJOY
working, not blinking; we’ll find joy in productive study and labor and
planting and harvesting. We’ll design houses and build them and live in
them. We may still use hammers. Chris Blake suggests that we may even
still hit our thumbs with those hammers . . . without turning the air
blue. Following the example of a Carpenter named Jesus Christ, who was
spiritually perfect but might have driven a nail or two in crooked while
learning His trade as a teenager. We’ll play softball and sometimes strike
out. And sometimes hit home runs too. In other words, we will enjoy a
life that is REAL. Tiredness won’t be a way of life, but might be a part
of the package when we savor the thrill of summiting a mountain peak.
Above all, it will be a place with always new, always exciting, never-before-tried
adventures to consider. Blake quotes from Bill Hybels, who testifies:
“God is a variety junkie.”
And I like this mind-bending quote from Bacchiocchi, who reads the descriptions
about heaven in the prophetic book of Isaiah, and interprets the metaphors
this way:
“Whatever the meaning of all the details, the vision
of the Holy City conveys the image, not of a mystical, monastic life in
a heavenly retreat, but of URBAN life of intense activity on this renewed
earth. . . . a life of communion, excitement, and action. The new earth
will be a complex, cosmopolitan place where all kinds of people of different
races, cultures, and languages will live and work together in peace. Life
will not be static and boring, but dynamic and creative.”
Have you ever thought about the fact that there will
be other people in God’s recreated new earth besides you? That’s a shocking
thought, isn’t it? You’ll have neighbors. Other men and women will be
living in your town. And it might still happen — even in the new earth,
in Paradise — that someone else will want to do something at the exact
same moment YOU had wanted to do it. Someone else may pick the hymns at
church and skip your favorite. Someone even there might express an opinion
that sounds wrong to you. A neighbor’s pet dog might bark too late into
the evening. What will happen then in this perfect world where there are
no tears?
Chris Blake, with his background as a high school and college athlete,
and whose father was a coach, points out that a basketball player spends
YEARS practicing basketball, not cross-stitching or diagraming sentences.
“Would God have us practice things all our lives,”
he asks, referring to our lives NOW, “if we never had to use them again
in the eternal game? What does God ask us to practice? The Bible describes
the practices of those who inherit the kingdom of God: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Could we need those in a perfect setting?”
Well, friend, these are the musings of men. We don’t know. Speaking of
baseball diamonds, we might be way off base with everything we’ve envisioned
all this week.
But in our last 60 seconds here, let me tell you the one sure thing. Are
you ready? Up there, we’re going to trade up from NOT living with God
. . . to dwelling eternally with Him. Now He’s invisible and hidden and
mysterious, but there we will see His face. God will be there in that
Better Land. He’ll be RIGHT there; the Bible says so. “I will dwell with
them and be their God,” He promises. We will worship and praise a visible,
present Savior named Jesus Christ. We won’t just preach about the nail-scarred
hands; we’ll SEE those hands and hold them and be forever blessed by them.
We won’t just have the promise, “I will come again” . . . we’ll have HIM.
The complete fulfillment of Immanuel: “God with us.”
Heaven will be the place where Jesus is. And THAT . . . is trading up.
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