This Cellophane Life. Isaiah 65:17-25.

Posted bySteven WalesPosted inHEAVEN IS A HOMECOMING!, Heaven is a place of JOY!, Heaven is Your Real Home, Life on earth is short, sickened, and sheer as cellophane, but life in Heaven is SOLID, weighty and filled with MEANING., We will WORK in Heaven, WORK IS A GIFT, NOT A PUNISHMENTTags:, , , , , , , , ,

Image: cellophane. Cellophane is the original name for clear plastic wrap or “shrink wrap.” Our lives on earth are like cellophane: thin, see-through, and not particularly durable. C.S. Lewis argued long ago that in heaven our lives will be “made of solider stuff,” and weighty, powerful, and filled with meaning. Rather than being flimsy and sheer, like a gossamer wing, we will find ourselves–to borrow an expression from comic books–MEN AND WOMEN OF STEEL.

I have a vivid childhood memory of being on stage in a scene that represented heaven. All the people were dressed in white and we children pretended to play our golden harps.

Is that what heaven will be? A monochromatic worship service? I’m sure the music will be incredible, and whatever the people may wear, I know heaven will be a place of amazing color. The Bible may not answer all our questions about heaven, but it answers more than you might think.

We read about heaven in many places: the words of Jesus, Paul’s epistles, Revelation, the book of Daniel, and more. You will need to study those passages to gain a comprehensive picture of the afterlife. But here are some facts about heaven in the order in which Isaiah addresses them in chapters 65 and 66.

  1. Life in the new heaven and new earth will be so amazing it will eclipse our memories of life on earth. I don’t mean you will forget everything, but this cellophane, short life of evils, illnesses, and gut-wrenching griefs, will surely dim in the face of a more weighty, more perfect, eternal existence. “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” Isaiah 65:17.
  2. Your eternal life will be filled with joy—joy for you and joy for God, who will find joy in you. He will delight in you. “I create in Jerusalem a rejoicing, and in her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard, nor the voice of crying” Isaiah 65:18-19.
  3. Your eternal life will involve a house and a job and an opportunity to serve. (And it won’t be an eternal church service.) You will do meaningful work in heaven. “And they shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat … Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain” Isaiah 65:21-23.
  4. In heaven, your prayers will be answered instantly. “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” Isaiah 65:24.
  5. Heaven will not be a land of bloodshed, death, decay, and rebirth. That cycle will be over. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not destroy in all my holy mountain” Isaiah 65:25.
  6. Heaven will be a place where God gives us great comfort. “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem” Isaiah 66:13.
  7. Heaven will be a place of legacy. I am not sure I understand this completely. But the Bible contains pages and pages of some 25 lengthy genealogies, detailing not only the famous like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, but also generations and generations of unknowns, like Jabez. God has proven his deep interest in legacies. In families and family trees. And in heaven, those lines may matter more than you think. God seems to indicate family lines will endure just as heaven itself will endure: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain” Isaiah 66:22.

Dear God, thank you for the promise of new birth in Christ and a new home in heaven. Help us understand more about our eternal life. Give us an eternal perspective. May our treasure truly be in heaven. Thank you for a destiny that is more solid, more real, more lasting, and more meaningful than anything we experience during our short lives on earth. May we love you more and may our hearts draw us closer every day to Heaven, OUR REAL HOME. Thank you.

AΩ

Published by Steven Wales

Dad's Daily Devotional began as text messages to my family. I wanted my teenagers to know their father was reading the Bible. But they were at school by then. Initially, I sent them a favorite verse or an insight based on what I read each day. That grew into drafting a devotional readng which I would send them via text. I work as an attorney and an adjunct professor, and recently wrote a book called HOW TO MAKE A'S.

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