Living in the mirror of eternity

    8ft below me, in a spare room, a number of new born chicks are huddled beneath the EcoGlow ‘Chick-heater-system’. One slightly younger chick is inside a small incubator along with 3 pre-hatched eggs. If all other noise can be ignored then their little squeaks can just about be heard.
   My sister and her husband accidentally booked their holiday to coincide with the hatching of their new chicks.  It fell, therefore, to us to care for the new born chicks.
   Although they are quite adorable and cannot be seen without an ‘awwww’ escaping the lips, there is also a sense of sadness surrounding their arrival into the world. No mother hen stands over them, no loving wing surrounds and protects them. Rather it falls to man-made incubators and heaters to bring them into their new homes.

O Jerusalem, Jeruslaem the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

    Jesus had a similar, but much greater, grief when he saw how his home city rejected the Lord God. They refused his love and spurned his protection. They would rather ‘make it on their own’ than trust in the true and living God of Heaven and earth. Our Heavenly Father wants to gather his chicks under his wing, but we all have fled from his love and protection. We’ve all wanted our own independence and rules, rather than his love and guidance.
    As the ‘Heavenly…..’ series draws to an end, I hope that you want to rest under God’s wing. There is no greater catastrophe on this planet than when someone rejects God’s mercy and grace. Heaven, as I love to say, is a Gospel place! It will be crammed with wicked, cruel and horrible people. But they will all have been forgiven and transformed through the grace and power of the Lord Jesus Christ!
    Perhaps it might be profitable if I recap some of what we have learnt over the past 5 posts.

• The inhabitants of Heaven have been bought there by and through the Lord Jesus Christ- it is his property and there is no back entrance.
• They will be with Jesus, who will reign, and will enjoy the presence and blessings of God. Heaven- whether paradise, city, house or throne room- is God’s own land which he has prepared for his own people. The citizens of Heaven will have literal and physical bodies, which will no longer hunger, thirst or feel pain.
• Jesus is the Messiah, the Warrior King who became the slain lamb, sacrificing himself for his people. He will one day return to claim his Kingdom. He only waits so that more people may be saved from the fruits of their rebellion.
• Heaven, either symbolically or literally, is pictured as a city. It will be the ‘New Jerusalem’. It will be permanent and no evil will exist within. God will dwell in the city with his citizens who will worship him.
• This ‘New Jerusalem’ will come after the destruction of the earth. This physical world will be replaced with a new physical world. 
• The Citizens of this city will build houses, grow gardens and crops, and will enjoy their work. They will praise and glorify their King, who has bought them to the city of Heaven.

 
    So, where does  that leave us now?
   Earthbound, I suppose.
   But don’t let your Heavenly bubble deflate! The scriptures urge us to live each day looking forward to Heaven! Not as the reward we expect, but as the gift we don't deserve. I have a handy note written and pinned up on my bookcase, it says this:

“May I view all things in the mirror of eternity,
waiting for the coming of my Lord.
May I speak each word as if my last word,
and walk each step as my final one.
If my life should end today,
may this be my best day.”

   When you start to study the bible you discover that a Heavenly outlook was vital to the heroes of the Faith who lived before us. Its an important mentality to have. But it is impossible to keep unless you have been given a new life, a new affection, a new desire and a new purpose through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; I may have mentioned this before: Heaven is a Gospel place!
   Please read Hebrews 11 and 12. Find out how important the promise of Heaven is for you! A Christian must  be living for that day, that day when he or she will finally meet Jesus face to face. As one hymn beautifully puts it:

Lord Jesus, when Thee face to face I see,
When on Thy lofty throne I sit with Thee,
Then of Thy love, in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth, its everlasting strength,
    My soul shall sing.

   I will leave you with the words with which I first began this series:
‘Stop moaning about petrol prices, VAT and the income tax and start groaning for Heaven!’