When We All Get to Heaven: A Future and a Hope

(Photo: Unsplash)

When I began writing this article, I sat at my desk and stared out the window for a solid ten minutes. Simply crafting the title brought joy and sadness to my heart as a dear friend (who I consider to be family) mourns and processes the death of her mother, who battled cancerous brain tumors for two years. This article is a tribute to her mother’s life, legacy, and the hope of heaven she carried to death’s door, only to pass through and see the face of her Savior.

The words on my friend’s mom’s lips when I last talked with her were, “I just want to be with Jesus and be in His presence.”

She carried this hope in her heart and routinely voiced this to her family even when her brain stopped processing information. Her hope in Christ was the core of who she was. It is now who she is in full as she stands before Christ robed in His righteousness. Her pain is gone. She is perfectly whole. She is rejoicing now with inexpressible joy.

What makes heaven so appealing for believers like my friend’s mom that they approach death with joy?

A love and desire for Christ.

Christ the Center

This is the hope of the end of Revelation:

“There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them; and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5).

The Lamb is the center of heaven’s worship. Earlier in Revelation, John describes the Lamb looking as if it had been slain (Revelation 5:6) in the middle of the four living creatures. Those who love Him, who have been redeemed by His blood, will desire the Christ-centered worship of heaven to give honor and glory to the Lamb. Just as the angels cry out, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing” (Revelation 5:12).

This will be the cry of the saints of God forever and ever.

No More Curse

Heaven takes us to a better Garden. What Adam failed to do in the first garden, the Second Adam has achieved. He now holds dominion over the Garden of God in the heavenly realms. Revelation carries this garden theme back to the language of the Garden of Eden.

“On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).

In the New Heaven and New Earth, God completely reverses and destroys the curse invoked on humanity in Genesis 3.

This is the future hope of believers. No more curses. All things made right. Dwelling with God in the Garden of Heaven forever.

For the Christian, like my friend’s mom, heaven was a future hope and is now a present reality. There is no need to walk by faith. She does not need her Bible anymore because she now gets to gaze on the Word of Life forever and ever. Now and into all of eternity. This is our future hope as well. We await the coming of our Lord and our future with Him.

Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.

Brittany Proffitt lives in Dallas, TX, holds a BA in Religion, and is a student at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is passionate about Scripture and how God’s Word impacts individuals’ hearts and lives.

Give

Subscribe to the Daybreak Devotions for Women

Be inspired by God's Word every day! Delivered to your inbox.


More from Cole Feix

  • featureImage

    The Pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and…Beauty? Suggested Reading on Arts and the Christian Life

    When someone mentions “the arts,” what do you think of? I believe a typical picture includes an “anything goes” attitude, whether in the artist’s lifestyle or in the art’s production itself. The arts typically get relegated into a culturally liberalized category, often leaving Christians scratching their heads, wondering if bringing art in any form into the church is a wise decision. Before I jump into book recommendations on this topic, let me begin by providing a brief survey of beauty in wors

    9 min read
  • featureImage

    Podcast – Villains of the Bible: Herod

    Check out the So We Speak podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Herod is one of the most well-known villains in the Bible. Without the biblical accounts, historians might have convinced us that he was a successful ruler. Born in 73 BC and dying in 4 BC, Herod lived through significant events in Roman and Middle Eastern history. He rose to power through his alliance with Mark Antony, who supported him in exchange for the wealth Herod could generate through taxation.Herod had no royal lineage to ju

    2 min read
  • featureImage

    The Ḥesed of God, Part 1: Hope and Joy in the Midst of Despair

    Hesed.Hesed is a rich Hebrew word and unfortunately it is extremely challenging to find a word that even comes close in English. The closest our Bibles come to is steadfast love, lovingkindness, or mercy. Yet even these fall short. Hesed is viewed as God’s covenantal, loyal and enduring love for his people, a love that pursues his people when they have done nothing but reject him (think the Israelites in the wilderness). It’s a covenantal loyalty that is unwavering and not based upon the conditi

    3 min read
  • featureImage

    The Power of Praising God in Prison

    Life can be challenging at times. Jesus made it clear that following him doesn’t exempt us from suffering. In fact, following Jesus guarantees suffering and persecution. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18). As followers of Jesus, we will face trials, rejection, and hardship. So, what do we do when life gets tough? Throughout the Bible, we find stories of faithful people enduring trials not because they disobeyed God, but because they followed him. One of th

    3 min read
  • featureImage

    Podcast - Villains of the Bible: Sennacherib

    Sennacherib’s story takes place in the eight century BC. He makes the villain list because of his invasion of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. His father, Sargon, came to the Assyrian throne in 722 BC which was the same year they conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Sargon’s body was never recovered after he died in a battle in Turkey. It was believed that because his body was not recovered after battle, this was a curse from the gods, and he was doomed to wander the afterlife begging for foo

    2 min read

Editor's Picks

  • featureImage

    Gratitude on the Go — Carol McLeod Ministries

    In case you have forgotten this important piece of information about my life or have somehow missed it – my daily walks are nothing if not legendary . I have had numerous divine appointments with needy, hurting people as I saunter along my 3-mile route in the neighborhoods near my home.

    7 min read
  • featureImage

    It’s crazy to be ‘crazy busy’

    By Elizabeth Prata SYNOPSIS The seventh day, sanctified by God for rest, underlines a universal need for downtime. Studies indicate productivity diminishes beyond 55-hour workweeks, showing GodR…

    8 min read

More from Cole Feix

  • featureImage

    The Pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and…Beauty? Suggested Reading on Arts and the Christian Life

    When someone mentions “the arts,” what do you think of? I believe a typical picture includes an “anything goes” attitude, whether in the artist’s lifestyle or in the art’s production itself. The arts typically get relegated into a culturally liberalized category, often leaving Christians scratching their heads, wondering if bringing art in any form into the church is a wise decision. Before I jump into book recommendations on this topic, let me begin by providing a brief survey of beauty in wors

    9 min read
  • featureImage

    Podcast – Villains of the Bible: Herod

    Check out the So We Speak podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Herod is one of the most well-known villains in the Bible. Without the biblical accounts, historians might have convinced us that he was a successful ruler. Born in 73 BC and dying in 4 BC, Herod lived through significant events in Roman and Middle Eastern history. He rose to power through his alliance with Mark Antony, who supported him in exchange for the wealth Herod could generate through taxation.Herod had no royal lineage to ju

    2 min read
  • featureImage

    The Ḥesed of God, Part 1: Hope and Joy in the Midst of Despair

    Hesed.Hesed is a rich Hebrew word and unfortunately it is extremely challenging to find a word that even comes close in English. The closest our Bibles come to is steadfast love, lovingkindness, or mercy. Yet even these fall short. Hesed is viewed as God’s covenantal, loyal and enduring love for his people, a love that pursues his people when they have done nothing but reject him (think the Israelites in the wilderness). It’s a covenantal loyalty that is unwavering and not based upon the conditi

    3 min read
  • featureImage

    The Power of Praising God in Prison

    Life can be challenging at times. Jesus made it clear that following him doesn’t exempt us from suffering. In fact, following Jesus guarantees suffering and persecution. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18). As followers of Jesus, we will face trials, rejection, and hardship. So, what do we do when life gets tough? Throughout the Bible, we find stories of faithful people enduring trials not because they disobeyed God, but because they followed him. One of th

    3 min read
  • featureImage

    Podcast - Villains of the Bible: Sennacherib

    Sennacherib’s story takes place in the eight century BC. He makes the villain list because of his invasion of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. His father, Sargon, came to the Assyrian throne in 722 BC which was the same year they conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Sargon’s body was never recovered after he died in a battle in Turkey. It was believed that because his body was not recovered after battle, this was a curse from the gods, and he was doomed to wander the afterlife begging for foo

    2 min read