A TASTE OF HEAVEN

                                                                 A TASTE OF HEAVEN

Ever since I became a Christian I’ve been exploring the culture of a country I’d never been to, but got to know more and more.  It’s a place called heaven and just as any place has its culture, there’s also the culture of heaven.  Ancient for sure, the first one there ever was!  God’s own culture no less, that he’s so happy with he wants it to go on forever.  Which is very much like himself I guess in that he is on record as having no beginning or end, which is a staggering long time by any standard.  What’s more, in that time he’s always been the same as he ever was, yesterday, today and forever.  And the culture he enjoys so much?  He wouldn’t change it for the life of him either, it’s here to stay too.  So, if it’s good enough for someone like him, who’s seen it all and I mean everything there is to see!  But he settles for that one place called heaven.  Then it must really be the place to be for even the most spoiled lover of culture.  Enough to make many a tourists heart beat faster.  And then to think it’s been opened up to the public, for everyone to come and experience it, awesome!  It’s like the locals in some amazing exotic location, who knew they were onto a good thing, that they’d enjoyed forever, couldn’t, just couldn’t, didn’t want to keep it to themselves anymore.  Like they had to take the lid of this well kept secret, because it became almost too painful not to share it with others. Something so good they wanted everybody to know about it.  Reminds me of what I saw written at the back of a bottle of wine in the supermarket the other day.

They said: “This wine has a deep cherry colour which is typical of vibrant Tempranillo wine.  The wine has a pronounced nose full of rich intense aromas of ripe red fruits with subtle, sweet notes of vanilla and sweet spices.  The palate is fresh, soft and velvety with flavours of red currants, vanilla and chocolate leading to a long elegant finish.”

Makes you want to taste it doesn’t it?  The language of the bible is like that too to bring home to us some pretty amazing stuff.  Beckoning us to come on in.  “come on in, the water feels good.  What are you waiting for?” “Don’t let us enjoy all this by ourselves, there’s plenty of room!”  Listen to what Jesus said in John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”  John 14:2 “My Father’s house has many rooms: if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you.”  Matthew 26:29 “I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  The apostle Paul, Ephesians 2:6 “And God raised us up with Christ Jesus and made us sit with him in heavenly places.”  Imagine the panoramic views from there while we are having that drink with Jesus!”  And how about this one, Matthew 11:28, Jesus said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”  So not only are we going to get our own room with the best panoramic views there are, but there’s a deckchair to come with it.  A place where we are going to feel rested and refreshed.  When does the next plane go?  It’s like the richest man in the universe is inviting us to stay with him in his personal resort.  The very one who once famously said about another one he’d just opened that everything was looking ‘good’ as far as the eye could see (Genesis 1:31).  And we are talking here about someone who doesn’t miss a thing.  It’s not like on the surface everything looks good, but when you look under the matrass you find mold.  No no, it was all good, everywhere, in every nook and granny.  He also said the food there was good to eat.  No wonder the people who went there felt very very good too!  What, with the best food money can buy, a gorgeous climate, heavenly company, a crime rate that’s non- existent, in an all- expenses paid sort of playground of the gods!  Honestly you can only feel really really good there can’t you?  The kind of place where you can find rest beyond your wildest imagination and where you get treated with such loving care you’ll just never want to leave again.

With what’s on offer it would be hard to imagine anyone wanting to turn their back on that.  Beats camping out in the bush underneath some snake invested tree, endangering your life in a field of thorns and thistles with all kinds of creepy crawlies everywhere!  But then again, everyone his own.  You’re always going to find a couple of people somewhere who’d go for the latter I guess.  But not me!  I’m not gonna let this one go by.  Because the one who made that culture also made people, all people, in his image and likeness no less.  Then there’s got to be a cultural heritage out there, somewhere, that ought to find reflection in my little person too.  I like it!  That’s awesome beyond words and so special, that the thought of it makes me sit up in anticipation.  Tickling just about every inquisitive bone in my body.  Making me want to discover all the intricate niceties to be found in what’s really a going back to my roots I didn’t know I had.  After all, Paul the apostle, who knew a thing or two about heaven, urged us to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2).