Face to Face
THE BEST IS YET TO COME: November 10, 2019
When you're a kid, birthdays are universally exciting. There are parties, cakes, presents, and friends. Even for adults, who doesn't like busting open a birthday piñata and watching the kids scramble for candy?
The older we get, the less interested we tend to be in birthdays. They remind us that we're not as young as we used to be, and force us to face up to other realities we'd rather not think about.
Keeping track of our age is something just about everyone does on earth. This week's lessons, however, describe a heavenly reality that by definition can't be measured by time. Isaiah, for example, characterizes the timelessness of heaven as a place where we won't think in terms of "young" or "old." John's image of heaven is vivid in its description of our time with God. And marriage anniversaries - another thing we like to keep track of like birthdays - will not exist in heaven.
We are so bound by time that it is hard to imagine what timelessness is. We talk about eternity like we can conceptualize it, but we really have no idea. The point of our lessons this week is that there are a lot of things we do on earth now that we won't be doing in heaven. God is preparing something better. The best is yet to come!
Do you still celebrate your birthdays or anniversaries? Hey, if you're going to live forever, who's counting?
► Readings:
• Isaiah 65:17-25: New heavens and a new earth.
• Revelation 22:1-5: This is eternal life.
• Luke 20:27-38: The God of the living.
• Psalm: 148
► Sermon theme on Revelation 22:1-5: "Face to Face"