It’s vacation time! Schools are letting out for the summer across our nation. Families are looking forward to vacations in the mountains or at the beach, and a fortunate few may even visit some exotic luxurious destination in a distant land. But no vacation spot on earth can compare to the glories of heaven.
The Christian’s ultimate destination is heaven, which offers wonderful amenities and gorgeous vistas to be enjoyed with beautiful people for all eternity. While heaven is not a physical place for fleshly bodies, it is a place that the Bible describes using earthly metaphors.
Imagine seeing an advertisement for a vacation spot that has these features and amenities:
• You’ll stay in a mansion prepared by Jesus. In John 14:2 Jesus said, “In My Father's house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you.”
• Everything is new and nothing decays. The Lord promises that He will make “all things new” (Rev. 21:5) and that nothing can destroy what we’ll possess (Matthew 6:20; Hebrews 10:34)
• You feel great every day. There is not pain or sorrow! (Revelation 21:4-5)
• You have a glorious body without diet and exercise! Philippians 3:20-21 promises that Christ “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body.”
• Your mansion is in a beautiful city, filled with beautiful people. The glory of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ illuminate the city, “and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it” (Revelation 21:21-25).
• And all of this can be yours at no cost to you! It is given freely for eternity! (Rev 21:6-7)
Sounds great! Doesn’t it?
The good news is that if you have been born again, your reservation has already been made by God Himself. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).
If you’ve ever had to cancel a vacation reservation at the last minute because “something came up,” you know a little about disappointment. Let’s make sure we keep our reservation in heaven. Let us make going to heaven our greatest desire, and let us pursue that desire with our most diligent effort, no matter what comes up. “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (2 Peter 3:13-14).
