To Live Forever

“... to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21

Don't you sometimes wish we could live forever and not have to physically die? I know Heaven is a beautiful place. I know I can’t even imagine it, can’t even fathom it. I know it's far beyond the blessings I treasure here on earth.

My human heart can’t make sense of something sweeter than the smell of our 2-year-old Jack’s hair right after a bubble bath; nothing as purely joyful as when our son, Brock, crawls into bed beside me and makes me laugh when I want to do nothing but cry; nothing as honest as my daughter Emmy’s hair falling on my shoulder when she hugs me and looks at me with that snaggle-toothed grin; nothing as pure as the heart of our oldest son, Alex, who would do anything for anybody, who offers his hands to anyone in need; nothing as comforting as crying on my husband’s shoulder or holding his hand in the dark.

In the years I’ve been on this earth, I’ve lost many people I love - my Pa who taught me to walk slow and love hard, my Nanny with her coffee and cold biscuit breakfasts whom I never quite got to tell goodbye, my friend Pauline who fed me tea cookies and wisdom, and my favorite preacher, Howard, who is still the voice I hear when my conscious needs me to hear something soft yet loud, but with a great deal of humor, grace and a southern drawl no one can mistake. I’ve also lost people in other ways; people who loved me through and through, who would change into people I didn’t recognize, who’d break my heart and leave me feeling empty.

But for everything I’ve ever lost, God has filled my cup to overflowing. He’s been my God of double. He’s been my El-Shaddai, which translates so perfectly - my “God of more than enough”. To live forever here on earth, it seems like it would be more than enough sometimes, doesn’t it? But we know that can’t be true. Heaven was made to be more.

But what exactly is Heaven?

Heaven is a place where you don’t wait long for anybody, a place where a thousand years feels like a day - which gives great roots to the old adage that time flies when you are having fun. Heaven is the smell of Jack’s bubbly hair, its Brock’s laugh, Emily’s soft, brown hair and Alex’s goodness. It’s my husband’s arm around me, my grandfather’s silver hair. It’s a funny southern preacher with a heart as big as Dixie. It’s tea cookies and conversation. It’s no more goodbyes. It’s people who’ve fallen made perfect, wrongs made right, hearts made whole. Heaven is a second chance and Heaven is everything we love plus a thousand, million things we can’t even begin to understand.

Heaven is seeing God’s face with the faces of those you love. It’s a place of more than we can imagine. (see 1 Corinthians 2:9)

I’m so glad that we have a Savior who loved us more than enough, a God who loves us more than enough to see past what we can imagine, to prepare a place for us where we can live forever, in a way that if we could understand we’d probably knock down the doors of Heaven just trying to reach. I’m so glad that we don’t serve a god of “getting by” or “just enough”. What a blessing to serve El-Shaddai. What a gift to be found worthy, even when we are not. What a treasure to be given and to be seen as His more than enough.