Recently a lovely old Christian lady in our congregation passed away to be with the Lord. The angels came and carried her soul to Abraham’s bosom. The thought which came to my mind when I heard she was gone was the words of M’Cheyne, ‘another lily gathered’. Our Saviour delights in feeding among the lilies (Song of Sol. 2:16). That morning He had plucked one and as it were placed it in His lapel. She is one of His trophies of grace and ‘He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied’ (Is. 53:11). It was ‘for the joy that was set before him’ (Heb. 12:2) that He endured the cross. Now our blessed Lord is enjoying the success of His labours and all heaven is bowing to, and worshipping ‘him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood’ (Rev. 1:5). For her the sufferings of the past five weeks were over and of course ‘to depart, and to be with Christ ... is far better’ (Phil. 1:23). We miss her but she is happy. She is with the Saviour whom she loved and served and soon we will be with Him too, following her there. In a sense she has outrun us. But what will it be like for her and for all our loved ones who have slept in Jesus (1 Thess. 4:14)? Yes, and what lies ahead for us?

Better than Eden⤒🔗

Heaven is described as a beautiful garden through which a river flows, ‘a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb’ (Rev. 22:1). In a dry and thirsty land a river is pleasant. This is no polluted stream such as can be found in our cities but sparkling more purely than any mountain stream. Surely proceeding from God and the Lamb this river must symbolise the life-giving Holy Spirit. There was a river in the Garden of Eden but there is no word about its amazing purity or life-giving quality. In Eden there was the tree of life, but here in heaven there are many such trees, ‘in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river’ (v 2). They so abound in life that they bear their fruit every month. It is always harvest-time. And ‘the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations’. What health, what abounding life, there is in heaven! Surely this tree must symbolise Christ who is our life (Col. 3:4). In Eden there was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but there is nothing like that in heaven. No sin can enter, no tempter sneak in and the days of probation are over.

No More Curse (Rev. 22:3)←⤒🔗

At first this does not sound terribly exciting but on reflection it is wonderful. We live in a cursed world. People ask, Why is there pain and suffering in the world? In simple terms it is because God has cursed the world. To begin with there was no curse. ‘God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good’ (Gen. 1:31). The world was blessed and man was blessed. God made man in His own image and he enjoyed fellowship with his Creator. God promised him life on condition of obedience and threatened death on disobedience. Man ate the forbidden fruit and so was punished. The threat became a reality. Death means separation and spiritual death followed immediately. Our first parents, conscious of their nakedness before a holy God, hid themselves in the trees of the Garden. But there is no hiding from God. First He pronounced conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Then He declared that there would be pain in childbirth and conflict between husbands and wives. Finally He cursed the ground. It would produce thorns and thistles and only by the sweat of man’s brow would he eat food. He stated, ‘Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’ (Gen. 3:19). Man was going to die physically. Aging would begin immediately; sickness, disease and disability would follow, and then body and soul would separate. The body would decompose in the grave and the soul would return to God that gave it, in order to render account to Him for the life spent in the flesh. Summing up, we see that the curse involves falling into a state of sin and misery. Temptation, quarreling, fighting, oppression, stress, sweat, weeds, diseases, disasters, pain, weakness, death and sorrow is the common experience of man. The curse appears to reign supreme over this world. What a blessed place it is where there is no curse! ‘There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away’ (Rev. 21:4). Because our experiences are so limited the best way to describe heaven is in negatives. We know these horrible things here and now, but they will all be missing from heaven. What a wonderful place it will be!

The Throne of God and of the Lamb←⤒🔗

God’s seat will be in the middle of heaven. The greatest blessing the Israelites enjoyed in the wilderness was the presence of God — the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. God dwelt among them hiding them from their enemies and giving light to them night or day. Hell is a state of God-forsakenness. Some parts of the present world are miserable, crime-ridden places where there is little of the fear of God. It is as if hell had already entered this life.

But heaven is where God dwells. His laws are good and He will enable us to keep them. He will be there as our Father. The throne is that of the Lamb. It is a throne of mercy, grace and love. He will remember our iniquities no more. The past is forgotten and a wonderful future beckons. His kingdom has come at last in all its fullness and it is a mighty and merciful kingdom for the elect of God.

His Servants Shall Serve Him←⤒🔗

Some think of heaven as our reigning with Christ and it is certainly that. But it is also serving. In this world we constantly sin and as Christians that is a great grief to us. We long for the day when our besetting sins will no longer cause us to slip and cover us with shame in the presence of our God and Saviour. How easily an idol rises in our hearts, how easily God’s name is taken lightly on our lips, how easily God’s day is misused! We are constantly indulging in hatred, lust, deceit and covetousness. Surely a mark of the true Christian is hatred for sin, not just outwardly but in our thoughts and attitudes. We long for heaven, never to sin again.

See His Face (Rev. 22:4)←⤒🔗

Moses wanted to see the face of God but he was only shown His back parts. The glory of God’s face would be too much for sinful, mortal man to see. But one day we shall be glorified and even we, not just saintly Moses shall see God’s face. ‘We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is’ (1 Jn. 3:2). The Psalmist said: ‘As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness’ (Ps. 17:15). We shall see, not an angry face, but one full of kindness. We are in love with Him and He with us.

We shall see that face which we struck, which we tore with the crown of thorns, which we mocked and wet with our spits, yet He lovingly bore all that for our salvation. Think of our loved ones, perhaps latterly blind, maybe these eyes quite vacant due to loss of consciousness but now seeing the beautiful, loving face of our Saviour.

His Name on their Forehead←⤒🔗

Some people get tattoos. I think they are quite ugly and disfigure the body. There seems to be a rebellion in tattooing the body. But now His name will be upon the foreheads of God’s people and what an ornament that will be! How radiantly beautiful we will appear! No higher honour is possible than to legitimately carry the name of God. We are His people and He is our God. Indeed we are His children and bear His image and likeness, outwardly and inwardly. What an honour in this life if people recognise us on our likeness to Him as our Father, but how often we are unlike Him and let Him down, but one day we shall really be like Him. ‘They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels’ (Mal. 3:17). Not only will we carry His name but we will be as His jewels who beautify and glorify Him.

We sorrow for our loved ones who have passed on. We miss them but they do not miss us. What comfort there is in considering that they are absorbed with the glory of their beloved Saviour. It is good to remember that they have fought their fight and finished their race and now they are enjoying their reward. We must fight on but we do not do so without hope. A wonderful future awaits us and we will yet see that our ‘labour is not in vain in the Lord’ (1 Cor. 15:58).