Coming Home Together

There's going to come a day where there no longer exists pain, suffering, starvation, mission trips will be replaced by vacations, and all will be good. Everyone will be fully alive in Jesus and we will, as George MacDonald wrote, "be good merry children in the great house of our Father. I think then we shall be able to pass into and through each other's very souls as we please, knowing each other's thought and being, along with our own, and so being like God." (The Heart of George MacDonald). How wonderful! Lately, I've been looking at Impressionistic art. That's a Degas above, "Ballet Rehearsal." It captivated me when I saw it; not just because I have a daughter who might be one of those girls above, practicing for the big show, but also because of what it images. It images a soft, beautiful time. A time where nothing is wrong. All is well. So well, there is even a violinist off to the side playing music for the girls to rehearse to. Do we not long for this type of moment in our lives? Yet it is so hard to be found. Moments like these will abound in heaven with Jesus though.

In this world, the timid, non gifted girl in high school is shoved to the library even though in her heart she would like to be at the ballet practice. Same thing on the opposite side of the world for the Thai prostitute who caught a glimpse of a ballet when she was a teenager, just before she fell into the darkness. In our Father's house, we will all be alive. The most untalented "nerdy" girl, as the world labels, will be the star of the show who receives roses from her Daddy. So will the starving girl in Sudan and the 40 year old prostitute in Asia. They will all be there, fully alive and restored, body, soul, mind, and heart. And so will you!

You will be there if you are saved by Jesus' blood and you will be fully alive in your heart with God, our Spouse, right there enjoying your heart's desires with you. If you want to do ballet, why not have Jesus teach you? He's the best at it :)

We put ourselves into saving people, preaching the gospel, "going to the nations," but what is our end goal through this? What does a world saved for God look like? Some kind of earth transformed into an ontological light that shines toward God? No, not really. God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). All of our hearts. And he wants us to share what we have with each other, here and in heaven. He wants us to not just share the news of Jesus' salvation, but also how Jesus will restore their hearts in intimacy with himself. And that gives everyone hope, because they can finally delight in Jesus, and know that they will get their heart's desires through delighting in him (Psalm 37:4). And this is the rub of sharing Jesus with others, we have to find out their hearts. What do they desire in their hearts? Whatever it is, through the process of sharing Jesus being The Way, we need to know their heart's desires so they too can know God will give them to them in this romance with Jesus.

When it's all done and we are in our Daddy's house, we will all be one, imaging our Lover Jesus to one another all the time. In those who do ballet, we will see Jesus' gracefulness on the stage reflected a thousand times over in a nightly performance at the theatre (had to do the "British" spelling of theater there. Lol). Those who do music, it will be like listening to God play the violin when we go to the concert in Heaven. We will be taught by God (Isaiah 54:13), and do everything with God our Beloved Spouse. And we will enjoy each other's imaging of God through it all. Not only that, but we will know each other fully. There are no secrets in Heaven, no one "out of the in-crowd;" we will all be best friends in our Fathers house. We will all know each other and be known by each other fully (1 Corinthians 13:12). Like MacDonald said, we shall be able to pass through each other's souls and know one another. It will be a festival of love in Heaven, never ending, forever multiplying our oneness and intimacy with our Beloved Jesus and our Father together with one another in everything we do. Even ballet performances and nights at the theatre :)