The Avalanche Of Unknowable Revelry - God's Right Hand

1 John 3:2 hit me like I had just insulted it's momma. I had to stagger backwards, and fall dumbly in praise. It is a verse deserving declaration:

"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared;"

Stop. Read it again. Cycle with me in this game. Stop, read it again. There is conceivable happiness in being God's child now. I say conceivable because it is a present reality and joy that we can experience in finding ourselves adopted. God cares for orphans, and I was the ugliest, snot-nosed kid out there. I kicked His shins when He approached and spat on hands that reached down. But He embraced me still, and adopted a wicked rebel as a son. He's insane, that God. And now I'm crazy about Him.

But the knuckled fist of time-outlasting truth that left a black and blue memory came in the next phrase - "and what we will be has not yet appeared;"

I take this to mean that the joy of being with Christ when He returns and being with Him forever is something we don't yet know. That thought is the snowflake that starts the avalanche.

Think of all the happiness of your life - family and sunrises and football games and ice cream in the summer and fresh picked blackberry juice running down your chin. Every blessing you can conceive - the smile of a loved one, the creativity of man in the beauty of art, the moon dancing a jig to a chorus of stars - think of all of it. Now forget it, because the ecstasy of heaven is something that "has not yet appeared" on earth. That means there is nothing like it right now. That means the godly will be given unknown and inconceivable happiness. "What we will be has not yet appeared." This is more than just a glorified body - this is a ravenous bliss deep enough to last eternity. The ocean is a merely a drop, Jupiter a marble, all of space only a wisp compared to the colossal happiness of what God has planned. So every joy you've ever known, every smile-adorned moment of life, every minute of enraptured pleasure is dwarfed by heaven's ravishment. You have never known joy like what is to come.

At God's right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). Such transport is worth every pain suffered for the cause of Christ. It makes bearable all the sacrifices of obedience. It is why the yoke is light, it is what makes all the seemingly unendurable sufferings but a feather measured against a mountain. This is a future worth trading the American dream for, worth trading your comfort and security for, worth denying yourself (and your sin) for 80 years.

I think the fact that Heaven is so marvelous is part of the reason why Hell is so horrible. To know such unfettered delight exists would be a continual vexation (vexation is far too light a word, but Hell has horrors language cannot contain). The eternal rapture could only be matched by the eternal despondency of those who had missed it. Take a moment and pray for those souls trading the treasure of Christ for the mud-pie of current satisfaction. And examine yourself, by the unfailing Word of Scripture, to see if you measure up. The reward is great, strive for it.