Heaven and intimacy with God
In Revelation, John—through a vision—gets a glimpse of heaven. He sees twenty-four elders falling down before God in worship and hears a multitude praising Him (Revelation 19:4-6).
Maybe you imagine yourself at the back in heaven somewhere, lost among the multitude, like someone trying to see a celebrity at a mass gathering. You may ask, "In heaven, will I be able to talk to God as I do now? Will He even know I’m out there somewhere, and will it matter to Him?"
The problem is that we imagine heaven in an earthly setting and fail to understand how God can be everything to everyone at all times (Ephesians 4:6). God is outside the limitations of time and space, therefore His focus is not restricted to one particular moment or event.
The Bible assures us that each of us have His undivided, personal attention at all times—now, and in eternity.
- God took time to form you and make you who you are (Psalm 139:13). He knows you so well that He is aware of every detail of your life (Matthew 10:30).
- God chose you before the world was created. Then He decided to save you from sin and adopt you into His family (Ephesians 1:3-5).
- He sent His Spirit to live in you when you believed and safely guards the eternal life He placed within you (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
- In heaven, Jesus will give you a new name written on a white stone—a pet name known only to Himself and you (Revelation 2:17).
- As an overcomer, Jesus gives you the right to sit with Him on His throne (Revelation 3:21). If Jesus set aside time to touch and bless one child after another (Mark 10:16), how much more will the Lord spend time with each of His children in heaven, where there is no time.
Mary Magdalene expressed her love for Jesus by clinging to Him after He rose from the dead. But Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father...” (John 20:17). The small word ‘yet’ is significant. It is as though Jesus was saying by implication; do not allow your emotions to hold on to the hope that I will be around in a physical form as before. There will be an eternity for you to show your love for me the way you are now, but for that to happen I must return to my Father. Would Jesus have stopped Mary from expressing her love if, in heaven, she were unable to do so in a personal way?
If, in our sinful state, the Lord has a close, one-on-one relationship with us (Revelation 3:20), how much more personal will that relationship be when we as His perfect children go to live in His home—the place where love lasts forever!