[lightswitch]
"What I Imagine..."
by Joel Thomas
As I take my very last breath on Earth it blows my mind...
Outside of myself, I look at my lifeless body for the very first time... Feeling more than fine... Feeling more fully alive...
Feeling the greatest of all highs...
Wishing I could comfort those behind, easing their worried and troubled minds.
I then encounter a heavenly being ushering me out of this present world, Leading me as we travel like I never have before.
We break through the barriers of time and space... We approach this very real heavenly place...
I’m met with the deepest sense of its amazing grace... My internal struggles vanishing beyond all trace.
The most beautiful and enchanting city on the horizon... Drawing me like a tractor beam with its glorious light shining.
I cannot only see but feel the warmth of its all-encompassing love penetrating my soul deeper... Lifting my spirits higher... Stretching my imagination wider... Satisfying my desires further. It’s beckoning me closer.
As I approach the walls with multiple pearlescent gates on all sides... It’s clear to me that they aren’t primarily protecting what exists inside... They mark the boundaries of a glory like no other you could ever find.
Only now is it within my comprehension...
Previously a precipice beyond my minds ascension...
An existence, at times, I doubted with feelings of great tension... Yet in other moments longed for, in faith, with great anticipation.
Inside a great book, my name is written as though I have never seen it before... In the most definitive sense of who I truly am at the core.
You see the ink is in red... It’s fully alive, not static or dead... As my name is called out, the blood of Jesus is what is said... My faults and failures not permitted to rear their ugly head... As I discover my life truly is hidden in Christ... the end.
As I pass through the gate, a crowd of people surrounds...
The most amazing of welcoming committees that could ever be found.
First, a long-awaited embrace with my dad who I lost way too soon... My grandparents, other family members, a mentor, a dear friend too... Then, unprepared, I come face to face with a child we never knew... Lost in the womb... Now, right in front of me in beautiful, full bloom.
I recognize them all so clearly... yet at the same time, don’t at all really... Their full restoration and healing... resembling the One all creation’s revealing.
We journey on a very real road...
A street so lucid it can only be compared to the purest of refined gold... We approach the River of Life, dancing as it refracts the light it cannot hold... Like the most perfect of crystals or diamonds that are bought and sold.
Sitting at the river's edge, the Tree of Life drips with healing ability... Using one of its leaves, all pain and sorrow are washed from my reality.
Tossed in the river it’s carried far away from me... Never again to be seen... Once and for all completely free... A liberation, of which, I only use to dream...
We then head to the source of the river upstream...
A Throne only fit for the King of all Kings!
It is the center of all things...
On it sits the One who rules all things... Perfectly sustaining all things...
To Him, no doubt, is due all things.
Incomprehensibly in the midst of the multitudes, the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, takes me into His embrace...
His fierce, warrior strength redefining my idea of safe...
His tender touch wipes away the very last tear my eyes will ever make.
Then He shows me a table of grandeur set for THE consummate celebration... A wedding feast of unmatched joy and redemption...
He leads me to the place designated with my own personal reservation... Beyond the most creative of bride’s imagination.
In Heaven, just one day has passed by...
A thousand years for those living in THIS space and time... Trust me when I say, you need not cry...
Heaven will wait for you to join us in this paradise.
Don’t be caught off guard, it will come soon... God’s mercy delays a judgment that indeed does loom... But at His table, there is plenty of room...
So bring as many as possible with you.
There is no one too far, no one too lost and no one too broken...
To experience the realities of Heaven and the One whose nail pierced hands stretch His arms wide open.