Time for Practice!

"In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." John 14: 2-3

Somewhere between this verse, any sermon I heard preached about Heaven, and Hollywood, I got the picture all of Heaven was a big cloud with a huge house where God lived in the middle of all the little white marble houses we would live in and the streets looked like the Wizard of Oz.  And honestly, that didn't make me want to long for Heaven.  I remember making deals with Jesus like, "Lord, if you could just wait 'til I got married to come back, that'd be great" or "Jesus, could you just wait 'til I had kids?" or "Could you wait until after [Insert any other big life event HERE] to come back and make the Earth new again?" Because Earth seemed pretty good as it was and the idea of flying around from cloud to cloud and singing all the time (even though I love to sing) seemed kind of...well, boring. 

You know what...that's not what Scripture says Heaven is about.  It may have been that "Angels in the Outfield," "Looney Tunes," or "It's a Wonderful Life" were more influential than I realized in my idea of Heaven being a blissful, haze of singing and sunshine.  A place where we won't have to go to work or clean the dishes or drive anywhere because we'll just fly.

Paul tells us in Colossians 3 since we have been raised with Christ we should think on things above and not things that are on the Earth.  He lists all of the things we should then "put off" and "put on:"

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self  with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

So if Paul is describing here what "the things above" are then the next verses are SUPER important to understanding this Earth and Heaven: 

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

What if how we live here on Earth is "practice" for how we will live in Heaven?  What if the things we do here (whatever they are) are the things we will do there?  We were created to work and cultivate because we were made in the image of our Creator.  Even before the Fall, Adam and Eve had purpose and responsibilities in the Garden.  Work is good for us to do...it's when we confuse work with the toil brought on by the Fall that we start getting things mixed up.  There will be a new Heaven and a new Earth God is going to invite us to care for in our redeemed bodies.  The spiritual gifts and talents we have here are to be used to glorify God both here on our present Earth and our future in Heaven. How much more important is it then that we approach our work and even our daily mundane with a holy ambition to glorify our Creator? 

Our God is not a hazy zen-ed out God just sitting up on His throne.  He is a mighty warrior, a fierce protector, a kind father, an imaginative creator, a great healer, and deserves all the praise our every breath can utter.  Whether cooking dinner, teaching children in public, private, or homeschool, working as a roofer, a lawyer, a pastor, or a waiter, we are His children and we should be putting off the things of this world in preparation for our future in Heaven.  Whatever the good things are here on this Earth, they are but a shadow of the things to come. And it most certainly will not be boring. 

--Gabreille Haston