Longing for Heaven

Longing for Heaven

I freakishly LOVE anticipation.  Whenever there is a big event or a vacation or a huge life-changing occurrence, I thoroughly enjoy the days leading up to it.  I remember as a kid being so excited the night before going to an amusement park, that I literally laid awake most of the night thinking about the fun I was going to have.  First day of school every fall?  Same thing.  From the moment we book a cruise or family trip, the excitement and anticipation begin building.  While I love surprising other people at the last minute with a trip or fun night out, I’m not sure I want to be surprised because that would mean missing out on the “dreaming” about the thing.  Basically I am longing for something that is to come…..something I know I am going to enjoy MORE than what I am currently experiencing.

Sometimes I long for heaven.  No, I don’t think about sending myself there prematurely and I am fine with however many more days or years God gives me here on earth.  But I genuinely get so excited when I think about what is to come.  The funny part to me is that these times of longing often don’t even happen on my worst days.  It can be just an average day or even a really blessed day, but I will catch myself having that excited feeling that I remember as a kid.  What is coming is infinitely better than ANYTHING I am experiencing here.  

The best comparison I can come up with (and it definitely pales) is marriage.  When you get engaged, you instantly enter this stage of anticipation.  Some days are packed full of planning and dreaming and getting ready for the wedding.  Some days your thoughts are constantly on the anticipation of getting to spend the rest of your life with the person you love.  And then some days you get caught up in the realities of every day life and just an occasional “whisper” of a thought about the marriage creeps in once in a while.  And the closer the wedding gets…..the more your anticipation grows.

That is what my longing for heaven is like. Some nights I almost can’t sleep because I am so excited to be in heaven with Jesus.  Some days the waves of life are too consuming and I just have an occasional whisper-thought.  

Sometimes when I see people who are absolutely terrified of death (and I don’t even mean a painful dying process….but actual death) or people who have extreme and prolonged grief after losing a loved one who is a believer, I have to stop and think.  Do they really, truly get it?  Heaven is going to be incredible!  

Every dream or longing I can possibly have does not even come close that what it is actually going to be like!  And if I am so excited just from the little hints that scripture gives us and what my little mind can imagine…..then just wait until the real thing!!

Remember, I said I "freakishly" love anticipation.  I know.  I am not normal.  :)