Have you ever noticed that secular books and movies about
heaven don’t have anything to do with Jesus? Heaven is supposed to be like a trip to
Mardi Gras or like entering a witness protection program. Lots of adventure and new
experiences. But no Jesus.
We believe that heaven will include adventure and new
experiences. And thankfully it will mean a reunion with Christian loved ones
who have gone on ahead. But preeminently, heaven is Christ.
I think that’s why the Psalmist said, Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you (Psalm 73:24, ESV).
The Puritans knew
this. I’ve been quoting from John Owen’s The Glory of Christ. Here’s another one about how our admiring
Christ makes us long for heaven. (I’ve highlighted my favorite sentence in this
paragraph.)
We ‘who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body’ (Rom. 8:23). The more we grow in faith and spiritual light, the more we groan for deliverance. The nearer we are to heaven and to Christ, the more earnest is our desire to be there, and to be with Christ. Groaning implies a strong desire, mixed with sorrow, because we do not yet have what we long for. The desire has sorrow in it, but the sorrow has joy in it, like a heavy shower of rain falling on us on a Spring day while we are in a garden. We get wet, but when we smell and see what the shower has done, we are happy even though we groan because we are soaked through! So groaning shows we long to be delivered from our present state and be lifted up to that heavenly glorious state (p. 105).
