“Our Father, who art in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9, KJV)
There are plenty of jokes told about golf in heaven. And some theologians who have written extensively about the topic wouldn’t argue with the premise. We may indeed be playing the fair game on “that side,” when we get there.
Others snatch pictures out of Scripture—none of them wrong, of course—and isolate their attention on the insights they offer: Mansions. Streets of gold. Songs of worship. Crowns and thrones.
Misty as our vision may be of the place, we can count on the existence of heaven. We can count on it, because Jesus kept pointing to it as the place where the Father dwells.
“Pray,” Jesus said, “like this…” Then he began by addressing “our Father in heaven.” The non-incarnate figure of the triune Godhead nevertheless exists in space. He is found in heaven.
When Jesus was baptized, we know this to be true as well: “At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him” (Matthew 3:16). The Spirit of God emerged from that other place, from heaven, to “dub” Jesus, as the voice of the Father came down as well: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well-pleased” (3:17).
Jesus advanced the idea that not only is heaven otherworldly in place, but that its economy is different. “Store up your treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20). Shocking, really, that we can make deposits even now into a bank we have never seen!
Yet with all this possibility and promise—that we will one day join God in his fullness in this amazing place—Jesus also spoke this strange line: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mark 13:31). Somehow, the heaven that filled the conscience of the people, the heaven to which Jesus himself pointed, will not last. The accounts of Revelation tell us that we will actually live out eternity in places made wholly new, both heaven and earth. The Father and Son will be enthroned together in a new Jerusalem.
If all of this seems too confusing, too much like guesswork, I have no problem with that. For now, my focus really does not need to be on heaven, the place. Rather, I am meant to live with my eyes trained on those preeminent inhabitants of heaven: Father, Son, Spirit. My job is not to “find the path” to heaven; my job is to follow the one who leads the way there. If I’m willing to entrust New York City to a seasoned cabbie, certainly I will not go wrong entrusting my eternal destination to the author of eternity.
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Jeff Hopper
May 16, 2012
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday through Friday and is archived by passage and topic at www.linksplayers.com.