I doubt many people have talked together more about eternity than Nanci and I did. I spent twenty years of our life together researching, writing, and speaking about Heaven, so we had lots to talk about! We found great comfort in anticipating abundant life in God’s presence. (I encourage you to talk openly with your loved ones and help prepare each other for your eternal home.)
Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you . . . that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3). If you put your faith in Him alone to save you from sin and hell, then Jesus is preparing that place—Heaven—for you. One day, He will bring Heaven down to the New Earth (see Revelation 21–22).
After the resurrection (when our bodies will be brought back to life, reunited with our souls), we’ll reach our peaks for the first time, and we’ll never pass them! We’ll feast with Jesus and all His people and tell stories and laugh. He will wipe away all our tears (Revelation 21:4). If we know Jesus, it’s not a fairy tale—we really will live happily ever after!
Nanci and I spoke often about what it will be like to live forever as embodied people on a resurrected earth—a world with trees, rivers, animals, music, literature, eating and drinking, reunions, new friendships, and above all, worshipping God with nothing to hinder us. Because we will continue to be God’s image-bearers, living on and reigning over a risen earth, there’s every reason to believe we will enjoy sports, drama, technology, and everything God designed human minds to come up with. Talking about this was immensely encouraging both to Nanci and to me.
Our grief has an expiration date. The world as it is now is under the curse, but God will lift it once and for all: “No longer will there be any curse” (Revelation 22:3). No more sin. No more cancer. No more dementia. No more suffering. No more death. God “will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8).
We who are grieving need to hear these words: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16, 18).
This eternal perspective has permeated and transformed my grieving. I saw my wife outwardly wasting away, yet because she fixed her eyes on Jesus and her unseen Home, I saw her daily being inwardly renewed.
The Apostle Paul wrote: “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). In times of grief and suffering, this requires trust on our part, since the promised greater good is future and we can’t see it in the present. But instead of trusting ourselves and our limited sight, we can choose to trust the One who has an eternal plan of sovereign grace and has gone to inconceivable lengths to see that it will be accomplished.
God, as we grieve, remind us of the far-reaching promises of resurrection. Help us live each day in anticipation of the life that awaits us on a brand-new Earth where we will live our lives in your presence, with those we love and who love you. Thank you for the place you are preparing for us now.
Adapted from Randy’s new booklet Grieving with Hope: Walking with Jesus in Heartbreak, now available from Eternal Perspective Ministries.
Are you facing a great loss? Perhaps a loved one or close friend has died. Great love brings great sorrow, and healthy sorrow recognizes the immensity of loss. But when death and loss come close, the temptation toward despair and hopelessness is often not far behind.
Author Randy Alcorn encourages you to go to God with all your sorrows and to remember that Jesus, your Good Shepherd, walks with you—a suffering Savior who is well acquainted with sorrow. No one can bypass grief, but you don't walk this dark valley alone. Jesus will lead you, and he guarantees that death is not the end and Heaven awaits. In Grieving with Hope, Randy gives perspective and practical advice to help readers on the grieving journey, so that in time, your grief will be accompanied by joy and hope.
Photo: Unsplash
