To Die and Then To Live

What on earth will it be like to die? To go into God’s presence? I know that thought kind of flits through our minds regularly, but have any of us really contemplated what that moment will be like? I know I haven’t grasped it. To be me—the same me that’s sitting here now with or without my physical body (whether I have it at our meeting or not depends on whether I’m still alive when Christ comes back, but, in any case, I’ll have it eventually)—and to be standing before my God and King. I don’t really think about it being me that goes up to heaven. In my mind I can see someone that is supposed to be me up there singing, walking, praising, laughing, dancing, doing what we’ll do in heaven, but it’s hard to really imagine myself there. I just imagine myself as a shadow of me. But no way am I going to be a shadow. I’ll be more of myself than I’ve ever been before. I’ll have a physical body. (Wait--that sounded weird. What I meant to say was, I'll have a physical body in heaven just like I had one on earth--but it will be better. Coolio.)
“What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable…” 1 Corinthians 15:42.
Our souls were never perishable, so Paul must be speaking of our bodies. There are many other verses that confirm our bodies will rise (“Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.” Isaiah 26:19. We wait for “the redemption of our bodies…” Romans 8:23)

Why don’t we think about heaven more? About coming into God’s presence? That’s what life is ultimately all about. We are to live to glorify God so that when we enter His presence He will tell us “well done”. That is the climax of our earthly life. The peak, the pinnacle, the culmination of every moment we have lived. I am going to pray today that I might be given greater understanding of the life that this life is all about. We’re so focused about “now” that we forget how someday “now” will be swallowed up in heaven. I’m not saying that today and this life don’t matter, because obviously they do. I’m just saying that we need to “fix our eyes on what is ahead.”

That is all. I wish I knew some cool Latin phrase to say “that is all.” Ah, well.