"Stand in the place where you live, now face north. Think about direction, wonder why you haven't before." -R.E.M.

heaven

Healing of Heaven

06/05/2010 05:07 AM Filed in: Personal

There are days — days very much like this one — when I long for heaven. I can only imagine that the longing I feel in my heart this evening will grow more robust as I age.

Today I took a friend of mine to the Springfield Zoo for a special evening they host every year. The honored guests are various people around our city with mental or physical handicaps.

I was torn because there were two emotions at work for me today: the joy of seeing these sweet children and adults enjoying an evening of fun was starkly juxtaposed with the pain of seeing the difficulty they had with walking, communication, and thought processing.

As the evening has worn on I’ve reflected a bit on the day. The more I replay pictures of it in my head, the more I realize my own “handicaps.” In many ways they’re more saddening than the ones on display in the innocent children at the zoo today.

They’re hidden. They’re not immediately obvious. They’re ugly.

I have full use of my legs, my arms, my hearing, and (at least a few would agree) my brain. Though this works out well for me in most situations it also comes with a terrible burden: I’m prideful, egotistic, and deceptive. I’m selfish, apathetic, and shallow.

God has been working out all of these kinks slowly for many years. I am a completely different man than I was even a few summers ago. But one side-effect of God’s sanctification is the stark realization of just how ugly the things I still struggle with are. God has purged me of so much . . . and yet still so much remains.

In heaven the lame will walk. In heaven the blind will see. In heaven the mentally handicapped will rejoice at the sheer brilliance of God’s eternal plan.

In heaven I’ll be freed of the burden of my own shortcomings. The sanctification process that began on earth, that has been painful and difficult, that has caused me to shed tears and long to throw off the weight of sin . . . that process will be complete.

We will all stand before our creator, fully healed of our earthly afflictions to the praise of His glorious grace.

Tonight, as I write this, that sounds pretty good.

Tags: heaven, sanctification