A Longing

Yesterday, I had a 2-inch needle stuck into my knee for a shot of cortisone.  I'm 22. I should hardly need cortisone shots in my knee.
What's wrong with my knee you ask?  Well, I think the general answer is that it's "old".  I've overused it through gymnastics, injured it by hyper-extending it numerous times and beat the poor thing up. So at 22, I have a body that is already slowing down and having trouble keeping up. Great.

This makes me long for a body that is whole, complete and finished.  It makes me long for the day when we no longer need doctors, and hospitals, have no more pain, cry no more tears, no longer injure, break, sprain, or twist anything and there is no more sickness.

I long to be whole, not only in body, but in mind and spirit: to be wholly sanctified and please my Father in Heaven, to spend eternity in His goodness and light.

I long for Heaven.

I used to think about Heaven as one long church service.  Don't get me wrong: I love my church. And I love attending church and church functions. I am close with my church family and truly enjoy being there and worshiping with them. But an eternity-long church service does not sound "heavenly" to me.

Thankfully, I have grown up and read a few more books and studied Scripture a little more and have come to realize that Heaven is SO much more than a church service.  It's an eternity of discovering the mysteries, the wonders, the goodness and love of our infinite, faithful God.  It's an eternity of fellowshipping with the children of God.  It's being constantly in the presence of God and bathed in his light and his love. An eternity of joy and peace and growth. And that sounds far more inviting and thrilling and wonderful.

I have no idea what this might "physically" look like and the pictures in my head are probably far less magnanimous than Heaven actually is.  After all, how can my finite mind come up with any idea of what heaven might look like??
But can you imagine God's library? Or His flower garden?  Or His vegetable garden?  Can you imagine the colors we might see? And the sounds and tastes and smells?
Everything touched by the hand of God and no longer tainted by sin. 

Oh, I'm ready.  I'm so ready.

May God grant us the blessing of tasting and seeing that He is good, even here, upon the earth [Psalm 34:8].  May we cling to the hope that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, even while we eagerly await being taken home to eternity [Psalm 27:13].