Hope for heaven

There are moments in life when the pain seems too great and the future too dark. When loved ones die. When a diagnosis changes everything. When an argument tears apart relationships that we never wanted to lose. Sometimes life feels so heavy that we want to fast-forward. We just want to get away from the pain, the grief and the overwhelm.

And yet there is a strength that sustains us in such times: Hope. Not just any vague hope, but a living one - the hope of a new heaven and a new earth.

In Revelation 21:1-7, John is given an overwhelming outlook: The old world with all its suffering is passing away, and God is creating everything new. No more tears. No more death. No more pain. No more suffering. Instead, a city as beautiful as an adorned bride - ready for eternal fellowship. God himself dwells in the midst of people, and his presence makes everything whole.

This hope was never just a consolation. It was the foundation of faith for the persecuted Christians in the Roman Empire. They were tortured, mocked and killed and still held on to Jesus. Why? Because they knew that what is to come is greater than anything this world can take.

Tim Keller writes: “If heaven is real, then our longing for healing, justice and joy is not a fantasy - it is a premonition.” We are made for heaven. For a real, renewed world in which God himself dwells with us. Not floating on clouds, but living with a new, transformed body. Jesus shows it after his resurrection: He eats. He speaks. He lives in the flesh and makes it clear how concrete the new world will be.

And this world does not just begin at some point, it begins today. Those who believe in Jesus are already receiving “living water” and thus a foretaste of what is to come. Jesus bore our hopelessness on the cross so that we can have hope. He took our suffering, our failure and our guilt upon himself so that nothing can separate us from God's love.

Whether you feel it right now or not, you are wanted and loved unconditionally - so much so that God gave his own Son for you. Jesus died so that you can live. Now. And for eternity.

Next Step: Read Revelation 21:1-7 and proclaim that God makes all things new. Speak this truth over situations where you desperately need healing or change and trust that nothing is impossible for God and that He wants to and will bless you.