eternal life 🌅

I am reading the final chapter of Dallas Willard’s “Divine Conspiracy” and truthfully, I am going to be sad to finish this book.  It has been like a companion to me the last two months of study!  But in this final chapter, where Willard draws together conclusions on what our human future is to look like, he paints a picture of heaven and eternal life that I am so drawn to.  It is a picture of each human set free in a gorgeous universe, empowered to do what we want to do, actively and creatively.  Having finally developed the kind of character to be able to do so, we “shall shine brightly, like the sun, in the Kingdom of our Father” (Mt. 13:43).  It is a picture that both brings joy and meaning to our present lives, but also hope and anticipation of eternal life.  Below is my own paraphrase of Willard’s chapter on the human future in this universe: 

The present universe is only one element in God’s Kingdom but it is the one in which the Son of man is currently preparing for us to join him in his stunning surroundings, where He has been since the creation of the cosmos.  We will there actively participate in the future governance of the universe.  We will not just sit around looking at one another or God, but we will ‘reign with him’ in the endless ongoing creative work of God.  This is what each individual was intended for.  Our faithfulness over a ‘few things’ in the present develops the kind of character that can be entrusted to enter the joy of the Lord in the ‘many things.’  And the joy is the creation and care of what is good.  His plan for us, as apprentices to Jesus, is for us to develop to where we can then take our place in the ongoing creativity of the universe.  

If that is not an amazing picture of heaven, I do not know what is!  I remember about a year ago one of the members of my GriefShare group made a comment about he thought heaven sounded “boring.”  He had said if everything is so perfect, what will there be to do?  I think this chapter in Willard’s book addresses that question!  God desires us to join him in being creative, even empowering us with the ability to create and care over what we want to, because our souls, our personalities, our characters will have been developed into the kind of children of God who can participate in that Kingdom!  Just as we desire for our children to develop the kind of character where they can be empowered to use their creative gifts to do what they want, God desires this for us - to active and unimaginably creative with him!  This is what it means to be a disciple, or an apprentice, to Jesus- truly learning what Jesus does and then to be able to be like Jesus in his actions, here on earth and then on into eternity. 

This quote by George MacDonald is a gorgeous picture of our future:

“And in the perfect time, O perfect God,

When we are in our home, our natal home,

When joy shall carry every sacred load,

And from it’s life and peace no heart shall roam,

What if thou make us able to like thee-

To light with moons, to clothe with greenery,

To hang gold sunset o’er a rose and purple sea.”

evening walk - sky painted pink and blue at sunset

evening walk - God’s gorgeous sunset