Devotionals by Dr. M. Craig Barnes
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, then we are of all people most to be pitied.
There was a time when the church was criticized for being so heavenly minded that it was no earthly good. Maybe we once deserved that criticism. Clearly, it is no longer our problem. Trying to justify the church's relevance to political, social, and therapeutic concerns, we have now lost interest in speaking about heaven. But anyone who loses interest in heaven soon loses interest in life on earth.
In spite of everything the Bible tells us about heaven, and frankly it's not much, heaven remains a mystery to us. And that is the great hope it offers to our life on earth. There is more than we can see.
"It's just another day at work," someone laments. "It's just another fight with my spouse, just like all the ones before it, and all that will follow." They can't see any possibility for change. But anyone who believes in heaven never assumes things are what they seem.
Heaven is the place where the Father, Son, and Spirit encircle all things with sacred mystery. After death we are raised to a new life that can enter this mystery more fully. But even today, everything about our mortal life on earth is contained within the holy circle of the Trinity. So anything can happen. We don't know what is ahead of us or above us. We don't even know the sacred surprises that will interrupt the day we dare to call ordinary.
-- Craig Barnes