Before we reach the heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
---Isaac Watts, 1707
#thisearthisnotmyhome #illflyaway #streetsofgold
#homesickforheaven
At various times throughout Christian history, this world
has not been a very hospitable place to live out life. This was sometimes true
for most everyone walking the sod, and sometimes particularly for those folk of
faith. It is easy, in times of hardship and earthly distress, to pin one’s
hopes on a better tomorrow, a bright and shiny heaven to take the bitter edge
off what seems a pale shadow-life lived
out here on earth. Imagine the Twitter-life of those trapped in the flat
reality of this existence, when they dreamt of, yearned for the richness of a
hi-def heaven.
In Isaac Watts’ hymn from the turn of the 18th
century, the hymnist urges those who ‘love the Lord’ not to wait to start
celebrating Kingdom life, but to let their joys be known. Yes, look forward to
heaven, when the distractions of this world will be stripped away so that
worship’s pure essence can be revealed, and those who will may dwell
consciously in the presence of God.
But, yes! enjoy the thousand sacred sweets the hill of Zion
has to offer before we ever reach those heavenly fields! And, yes! live
abundantly here in this rich land where God also reigns! God didn’t create us
for either/or; there is richness and abundance in this life for all time, and
for all!
#alltheyes
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