I was thinking about 'Black Friday' and giggling a bit as I processed on this blog. So, I did a search for the word 'shopping' across my old blog posts and came upon this post. I continued to giggle. You see, I think that shopping on Black Friday is just a small foretaste of what hell could be like. There are a few days that I would give nearly anything to avoid high traffic shopping areas. This is one of them, the day after Christmas is another. But, then I prefer to avoid crowds most any time.
Whether or not you love shopping or love spending a few hours with thousands of your closest friends grabbing for items that might be a great deal, now is the only time that you will get to do that. Shopping just isn't on the list of things that we are going to get to do (have to do) in heaven.
Alright, while I was writing that paragraph, I ran across a short story in my mind. There are a lot of them tucked away up there.
Carol and I were pretty young when Mom decided that it would be great fun to take us to Filene's in Boston while we were all visiting her mother out there. Filene's Basement was an extraordinary experience. All of their seconds, damaged, off-season pieces were slashed down in price and it was first-come, first-serve. And yes, it existed in the basement of the high-end east-coast department store. If you could grab it, good for you. There we were - I had to have been ten or eleven, which put Carol around seven or eight - three midwesterners (Mom had lived in Iowa for more than 10 years, she qualified) among some of the craziest women we'd ever seen. I watched with my mouth wide open while a woman stood in the middle of tables of bras, pulled off her shirt and bra, and tried one on. Other women were tossing clothes everywhere - across aisles, up in the air. Clothes went on and off their bodies as they tried everything on. Women shoved themselves into all sorts of sizes because of the great prices. We did our best to not get trampled as clerks brought out more stock to refill the tables and racks. Women were shoving and pushing to get what they desired. Mom finally remembered some of her east-coast upbringing and got physical right along with the rest of them. I do remember the outfit that I took home from that experience. It was one of my favorites, maybe because we had worked so hard to claim it!
The best part of the story, though, was at the check-out register. Mom asked the clerk if she could write an out of state check. The clerk asked where Mom was from and she responded, "Iowa." The clerk raised her noise at Mom and arrogantly announced, "Out here, we pronounce that O-hi-o." Mom shook her head and wrote the check.
Well ... anyway ... a day will come when beating up on each other to get to the best deals in the store won't seem quite so important.
August 23, 2010 – Isaiah 65:13-16
Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit. You will leave your name to my chosen ones as a curse; the Sovereign LORD will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name. Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth; he who takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.
Do you spend much time imagining living in the New Jerusalem? While many might read this passage and think of the punishment of the wicked – those who forsake the Lord, read this from the other side. Think about what comes to those who are God’s servants!
When I was growing up, I’m sure that I was like many of you when I thought about going to heaven. All I could think was that it was going to be extremely boring. Who wanted to stand around in a white robe all the time, singing! I mean, yes, we should be thrilled to stand in the throne room of God and I would come up with reasons why He would make it so that we’d like that, but it seemed like an awful lot of work on His part to create zombie worshipers out of all of us just because we were finally dead.
Now, on the other side, I get weary of listening to people talk about their favorite golf course or finding their fishing buddies around a hole filled with walleye or the best shopping ever known, on and on … as if God was going to create a personal pleasure palace for each of us where we could be kings and queens of our space.
I really don’t believe that either of those extremes is true. There are plenty of hints, such as in this passage. We will eat, we will drink, we will rejoice, we will sing from the joy in our hearts. When we look at Revelation 21 and 22, we find the majesty of the architecture, the beauty of the gems, the glory of nature and the pageantry of the kings of nations entering the city.
If we peek into the throne room with John in Revelation 4, we see astounding colors and images, filled with sights, sounds and great glory.
God looks forward to sharing His Kingdom with us. He invites us to join Him there. It’s an invitation to accept.
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