Eternity

If, when we all get to heaven, we are just given to each other the way that God always intended us to be and we're not divided by family lines, colors lines, ethnic lines, language lines, or any of the other lines we like to draw here any more, then that raises a significant implication for the way that we speak about the coming Kingdom. 

Because if it's even possible that I don't recognize you in heaven and you don't recognize me, if we're not just waiting for each other by the gates, if there's not some great big massive family reunion...and if, rather, we are simply swallowed up in something whole, complete, good, and loving that feels so natural and wonderful to us, finally as things were meant to be...

...then I cannot have a single selfish reason for wanting you to go there. 

It is, I think, one of the really common evangelistic pitches of the past hundred years or so: please give your life to Jesus because I don't want to do eternity without you. Selfishly, I want you to be there. I want to continue the same fun, love, good times that we have here into all eternity with you, and heaven just won't be the same if you're not there. 

As if heaven - the perfect plan of God's salvation and restoration - would somehow be incomplete if Joe decides not to come. Thanks, Joe. Ruined God's whole plan for everybody. 

If, in fact, all of this is true, then the only reason to want anyone to go to heaven is for their own benefit. 

It's got to be because you want to see them whole. It's got to be because you want to see them loved. It's got to be because you want to see them swept up in something greater than them, something that maybe eluded them here in this life, something that puts their whole reality into perspective and becomes, as God intended it to be when He first gave us to one another, "very good."

That has to change the way that we preach Jesus. 

And, I think, for the better. 

We have kind of this bad reputation for preaching hellfire and condemnation, for using fear of brimstone to bring persons to the baptismal waters. Asking others to say a prayer or to come to the water because we are worried about them. 

But what if we were hopeful for them instead? 

What if we were able to paint for them a vision that we could see for their life - a vision of goodness and happiness and wholeness and love - that we can see because we see Jesus? What if we were telling them how amazing it's going to be to be fully loved...and not just loved, but known? What if we could really tell them it's not about us at all...there's no guilt here. It's just us knowing what a beautiful future awaits for them and can't they fall in love with the idea, too? 

I think that's a better way to preach Jesus anyway. 

But if what Jesus says is true and we aren't given to each other in eternity the same way we are here in finite time, then...I think it's the only way to preach Jesus. 

Friend, He loves you. And there's a whole heaven that already knows it and can't wait to wrap you in that love.