Thoughts From Colossians - Day 2

 

        "  ...the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven." Col.1:5

              When the grandkids spend the night, when they come downstairs, usually very early in the morning, they will seek out my wife, Mimi, on the back porch who is having her quiet time. She then does a devotional book with the girls and a different one with the boys. This morning as I listened in, I heard, "How old will we be in Heaven?" "If there is no night or darkness, will we sleep? "Will we go to the bathroom in Heaven?" "Will I be able to fly in Heaven?" "Will we be sad in Heaven?" "I think Pokemon characters will exist in Heaven.""What will we do in Heaven? Can we play video games?"

               That's not the first time they have had questions about Heaven and I'm sure it won't be the last. Why are we all so fascinated with Heaven? The Bible says that God has put eternity in the hearts of man which means that all humans deep down know there is something beyond this life - that we don't just cease to exist. Christianity says that there is a Heaven and we can know for certain if we are going there. It isn't like school where you are waiting to see if you scored high enough to move to the next level and the resultant anxiety, but rather a confident life of peace knowing that we have already received our grade and it is "Pass" so just enjoy the class. Carrying the analogy a little further, the class was so hard that everyone in it had no chance of passing but Jesus took the test for us and scored a perfect 100 and applied His score to everyone's grade if they so desire.

             So if, as believers who have received the gift of Heaven, how should that affect us? Paul says that love for others should spring from this. Why would love spring from this confident assurance (hope)? Well for one thing, using the test analogy, we aren't competing against others for a place or a better grade. There were times in my post-high school education where people didn't want to study with me for tests. They felt like they "had it down" and studying with others and sharing their knowledge could only affect them negatively. How would that attitude have been changed if they knew ahead of time that everyone was going to fail the test but the teacher would give them an "A" anyway? They probably would have gladly studied with me and shared all their knowledge with me. As fellow failues in life, knowing that Jesus has accepted us anyway and given us Heaven, there should be no pride, selfishness, or competition between fellow believers, only love.