I work in the grocery store over at Colter Bay, and as part of our uniform we wear these gold name tags with our name and home state on them. Mine says: Linnea Peckham, Pennsylvania. These tags are a big conversation starter with customers. I hear “Pennsylvania? You’re a long way from home” on average probably 2 or 3 times a day. This observation is often followed by a question along the lines of, “What brings you out here?” It’s a good question, but it’s not an easy one for me to answer. The truth is, I wanted to come out West for the summer because I had this inexplicable longing to be awed. To be blown away by the beauty of Creation. To be able to clear my head of all the busyness of college life. To discover... something. I don’t even know how to express what. And whatever it is, I haven’t found it.
Don’t get me wrong, the mountains are beautiful. The lakes and rivers and canyons are absolutely incredible. I’ve seen the most amazing sunsets and the most unbelievable shooting stars. They are all God's handiwork, and they all display His glory. But this longing I feel deep inside of me, this yearning for something more... it’s not for the mountains, but something far, far beyond and above them. It was only after I came here and took it all in that I realized that the glory and wonder of places like the Tetons and Yellowstone are only a foretaste of something much, much greater.
C.S. Lewis writes about this restlessness, this longing in the human heart. “Most people,” he says, “if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world.” I think a lot of the folks who come through places like the national parks are keenly aware of this desire inside of them. Like me, they come looking for it to be fulfilled by the wonders of nature. Like me, they are disappointed.
There are two mistakes people make when they encounter this disappointment. Some keep on looking for it in one place after another. Or one person after another, one drink after another, whatever the case maybe. They keep thinking that the next thing will be the last thing, which of course it never is. Other people become disillusioned by it all. They stop expecting greatness from the world and settle for mediocre. They grow cynical and laugh at those who keep trying to extract joy from life. I think I have, to an extent, been at both of these extremes at different points in my life. Maybe you have as well. And it's hard, because no matter how hard I try, or how hard I try to avoid trying, I'm just not content. It's like it says in that U2 song: "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."
But there is a third way. A way that ends in hope, not disappointment. If I may be so bold, it is the Christian way. We recognize that desire is meant to be satisfied. God would not have created us with longings that can’t be filled. We get hungry, we eat. We get thirsty, we drink. We get tired, we sleep, etc. Since we experience this elusive desire for “something more,” we believe, as with these more simple examples, that something must exist which will fulfill it. It's one of the most compelling arguments out there for the existence of an afterlife. As Lewis writes, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Christians believe that this other world is the answer to the longing I’ve been describing. We are yearning for heaven. As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:10, God has “set eternity in the human heart.”
But I’ve noticed that Christians, at least the Christians I’ve encountered, don’t talk about heaven very much. In a way this makes sense, since we don’t know exactly what it will be like, and it can for this reason be difficult to discuss. But if you think about it, in another sense, the fact that we avoid this subject is very odd. Heaven is where we’ll be spending eternity. It’s Home, with a capital H. The hope we always talk about, the hope we have in Christ, is more specifically the hope that we will spend eternity with Him in heaven.
The Gospel, the Good News, isn’t just that Jesus died for our sins, though that is where it must begin. Jesus died for our sins so that, as it says in John 3:16, “whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.”
I think we’re supposed to spend more time thinking about and talking about heaven. It’s only with an eternal mindset that we can be fully effective here on earth. How can we know how to go through this life if we don’t know where it is that we’re going? And it is such a beautiful thing to look forward to. Such a beautiful thing to look forward to. Some people might say it’s morbid, but we aren’t talking about death, we’re talking about life. Life that is more real and beautiful and full than anything we have experienced or can experience here on earth.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is finished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.”
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