Wanted: Alive, Forever.
This afternoon I was growing rather weary of my oversized cat laying on me, frequently flexing his large, sharp claws, which periodically made their way through articles of clothing and on to my skin, as well as his periodic standing, thus concentrating his excess weight to the small surface areas of his paws, to adjust his position, as he likes to do quite often. I made it rather clear to the human members of my household that I was quickly growing weary of him and wanting to get rid of him; not permanently (I like my big cat), but for the time being. My 12 year old son had made it clear minutes before that he wanted to apprehend the cat to have him hang out with him for a while. I called him down from his room so he could obtain the excessive mass of feline fur and flesh that was occupying nearly all of the space on my lap. He did so. A couple of minutes later, the cat came bounding down the stairs and forcefully back onto my lap.
This is of course a rather light-hearted and silly example of family situational humor, however it got me thinking about Heaven (no, not the question of whether or not our pets join us on the other side). My son wanted the cat with him. The cat wanted to be with me, but I did not want him; my son felt unwanted by the cat, my cat may have felt (as much as a cat can “feel” :-) ) unwanted by me. In romance, how often does some guy want some girl, but she doesn’t want him and wants some other guy that doesn’t want her? Of course in an even more serious sense, regardless of the reason, how often do people feel genuinely unwanted? Quite often, unfortunately. Feeling unwanted is a terrible and often devastating feeling. It equates of course to feeling unvalued, and worse yet, unloved.
In Heaven there will be none of this. All of those who are believers in Christ will finally shed the sinfulness of their flesh, once and for all, and only the sinless born again nature of the spirit, which bears the righteousness of Christ, will enter Heaven. That part of us, which enters Heaven, will be like Jesus, so much that we will see Him as He is (1 Corinthians 13:12, 1 John 3:2). God wanted so much for us to be there with Him; to be like Him, that He was willing to die in our place and pay our deserved wage for sin (that had to be paid), so this could be so (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 6:23, John 3:16, etc.). We will be in His presence; the one who has truly shown us how truly loved and wanted we are, forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17). We ourselves then being like Christ, will be very loving and lovable, and so will everyone else around us. We will share this perfection of Christ with one another for eternity. There will be no sin (there can’t be sin in Heaven), therefore no neglect, no arrogance, no cliques, no ostracizing, no back-stabbing, etc. Everyone will be like Jesus; loving and lovable. I am looking forward to it.
This is what is promised to those of us who have put our trust in Christ; who have believed the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Acts 16:31, John 3:16, etc.). If this does not yet include you, it can, please let it. The Gospel, which means “good news,” is simple: Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Ephesians 1:13 makes it clear that when we believe that Gospel (as in fully trust in and accept it), that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) is God; this is a seal that IS NOT going to be broken. The grace of Jesus is sufficient; it is ENOUGH to save you (2 Corinthians 12:9). Put your trust in Him, plus nothing; believe the Gospel today and have absolute assurance of eternal life in the situation that I described above. Please browse this website for more information about this eternally important topic. Please be sure to read the short book “Angles and Aspects of Salvation,” which can be accessed from numerous places on this website. I will say that that little book contains a lot of answers to questions that I had wrestled with, regarding salvation. Feel free to contact me as well, if you have questions and want to talk to a real person about them. May God bless all of you.
JJR