Anticipation

I don’t deal well when I have to wait. I’m not a fan of long lines at the grocery store, red lights, or slow computers. I’m working on it, though. I may not be a fan of waiting, but I am a fan of anticipation. You know that feeling that builds in the weeks before a big trip? Or that feeling you get when Christmas is just around the corner and you can’t wait to open your presents, especially if you don’t know what some of them are? I love those feelings! I don’t mind being kept in suspense when I’m excited about the event to come.

Have you read today’s devotion yet? (If not, go ahead and do it. I’ll wait until you come back.) I read it and wondered how many of us wait with anticipation for Christ’s return. Kenny Chesney has a song out now called “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now.” I heard it on the radio a few days ago as I was flipping through the stations and stopped to listen to the words. It hit me that a lot of people feel that way. And honestly, I used to too. A few years ago, I secretly hoped that Jesus wouldn’t come back until I was older and had done all the living I wanted to do. Do you feel that way?

But once I started looking around at the world we live in—the war-torn, impoverished, natural-disaster riddled, economically troubled, violent planet we inhabit, I realized that our earth is wearing out. But it’s not just our fault. This earth wasn’t meant to last forever in its present state.

Even earth’s good parts—the beauty of the Rocky Mountains, the near paradise of the tropical isles—are just pointing to how great this planet will be when Christ returns and redeems it. (You know that “all things new” idea in the Bible? [See Rev. 21:5.] That applies here. God will transform all of creation.) And our relationships with others—which can be so difficult to understand, unfulfilling at times, and painful to end—point to just how fallen we are. I crave a perfect place where I can be in perfect relationship forever with one who loves me. Do you know why? That’s what we were created for. And do you know where that exists? Heaven.

So yeah, my life is great here on earth, but I’d be happy to leave it all right now if God called me home. I look around me at all the turmoil in our world, and I actually long for Jesus to come back. I know the earth has good things to offer (and I enjoy them!), but I realize that they are only glimpses of what heaven contains. And heaven is worth anticipating.

What about you?
What about life on earth makes you want to go to heaven?
What makes you want to stay here?
Are you ready for Jesus to come back? What if He came back this afternoon?
What do you need to do to make yourself less attached to the things of this world?