How far away is heaven? There are days when it feels very close, aren't there?
I've often returned to the words of the preacher Arthur John Gossip. He was about my age when his wife suddenly and tragically died. The following Sunday, he was in the pulpit, preaching a sermon he titled, "But When Life Tumbles In, What Then?" Given the freshness of his grief, he spoke words I've only begun to feel with my limited pain and perspective:
When we are young, heaven is a vague and nebulous, and shadowy place. But as our friends gather there, more and more, it gains body and vividness and homeliness. And when our dearest have passed yonder, how real and evident it grows, and near it is, how often we steal yonder.
I confess I didn't preach much about heaven when I was younger; it didn't seem important. But, over the years, as more and more friends have taken up residence in that "happy land, far, far, away," it's become a vital topic, and heaven has felt much closer. Wouldn't it be something if we could "steal yonder" and see what those who have gone on before us see? We would be amazed at how near heaven truly is.
Today at Kansas Christian Church, we'll do our best to "steal yonder" with John as he tours the throne room of God in Revelation 4. We will see both the strange and familiar on the other side of the sea.
