“The Christian hope of heaven is unwaveringly rooted in the incarnation of Christ and his promise to come again.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – December 15, 2022
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Revelation 21:1-3, ESV
As we inch our way closer and closer to Christmas Day, quite naturally our thoughts are turned toward the past, with our hearts filled with wonder over the birth of Christ in a manger thousands of years ago. The mystery of the incarnation, God with us, is one that will never be exhausted or fully understood, yet we marvel in worship at the babe who came to set us free and restore that which was marred by sin and death. And yet, in this Advent season, we too must set our hearts and minds upon the hope of heaven, that just as Christ came in the manger, so too has he promised to come again and heal our world.
When we lose sight of the return of Christ, his “second Advent,” our understanding of life after death and eternity is less and less shaped by the biblical story of Israel and is instead replaced with generic cultural examples of heaven. To give but one example, while preparing dinner with my children the other evening, the topic of heaven came up, and as we talked I realized the Pixar film Coco was the dominant vision in their minds of the world to come! “Wait, so we don’t think that’s what heaven is like?” They said in stunned disbelief. In that moment, while on the one hand I was reminded and impressed by the power of visual storytelling, I realized how deeply I needed to root my children in the biblical story of heaven and the life to come!
The Christian hope of heaven is shaped neither by indigenous ancestral religious practice nor the generic “floating on clouds in the sky” vision but is unwaveringly rooted in the incarnation of Christ and his promise to come again. And interestingly, as we read Revelation 21, we see that rather than us going off to heaven, the final hope and the promised end is God coming down to earth. “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).
And so, as we prepare our hearts and homes for the birth of Christ on Christmas Day, let us not lose sight of the hope to come. We are physical creatures made by God to live and breathe in a physical world. The hope of the resurrection is not just a spiritual abstraction but is the foundation of our faith. Just as Christ physically rose from the dead, so too will we be raised to life in a renewed creation, one in which every tear is dried and death shall be no more (Revelation 21:4).
Prayer
Father, give us hearts that long for the coming kingdom of heaven, and the strength to anticipate it with acts of love and mercy in the present, we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
Read all of Revelation 21 today and allow it to shape and reshape your imagination of heaven and the age to come.
Related Reading
Titus 3:3-7; 1 Peter 1:13; Revelation 7:15-17
Worship Resource
Young Oceans: Heaven All Around
Donate
If you are blessed by these daily devotionals please prayerfully consider a donation to support Wisdom Hunters Resources. We are trusting the Lord for His provision.
Download our app!
