Folks, I always warn you when my thoughts slip into areas that may be, but are not really in the Bible. This is one of those times.

Louise and I took our children all over the United States as they grew up, so they’ve seen many of the awe-inspiring places you read about…The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Carlsbad Caverns, Hoover Dam, The Rocky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Williamsburg and Plymouth Rock…Washington, D. C…driving under Chesapeake Bay through that tunnel; both oceans, and many other places. But at my age, those long vacations may be over, with many other places here in the United States, much less the world over, that I’d like to have seen.

But what if. There’s much in the book of Revelation that I still don’t understand, and the Bible speaks of a new heaven and a new earth that will be…and since God made a perfect earth in the beginning (it was man that fouled it up with concrete and bulldozers)…what if God would keep those things for us to see at our leisure, when He brings us to that new Heaven and earth! With time never ending, we could see every little flower, if we wanted to.

But even if my thoughts are just daydreams, it won’t matter. We won’t miss things we haven’t done or seen in this life. If they’re there for us, fine; if they’re not…fine. God and Christ have already arranged a place we can’t imagine, and it’s ours. Ready and waiting. All we have to do is accept it, and we do that by telling Christ that we’re ready to live for Him.

It’s a gift, waiting for us to open. Think about it, and just tell the Lord right now. Like a beautiful gift, we hate to unwrap it now, because we’re accustomed to this life. But we must open it, to realize what Christ has done for us.

37BT Bill Thornton October 10, 2007