As the sun rose and hit last night’s snowfall, the neighborhood burst into beautiful sparkles. But by the time Jack and I walked to the beach mid-afternoon, the sun’s warmth had done away with most of the new snow. Nevertheless, I picked up pretty stones on the now-visible sand and was impressed with how many of them sparkled in the sun, some as impressive as geodes.
Then I noticed rows of tiny icicles hanging beneath pieces of driftwood left on the beach by winter storms. In the sun, these glistening beauties were like rows of glass thermometers with light dancing inside.
When we got home, sunshine through my windows was hitting a crystal piece of art my friend Julie had given me, splashing hundreds of bright rainbows all over the room. When I spun it, it was better than a crystal ball on New Year’s Eve!
The sparkling snow, the stones, mini-icicles and glass art all came to life when sunbeams hit them. Although each was attractive in its own right, when sunshine was added, they changed from ordinary to dazzling.
This same comparison can be made between Nate and me. I’m living an ordinary life here in Michigan, sleeping, waking, eating, doing all the everyday things. Nate is leading a life for which no word of description is good enough. Even “dazzling” doesn’t do it. It’s outside of our human thinking.
I studied the mini-rainbows on my walls and floors this afternoon, wondering if there will be rainbows in heaven, and if they’ll be even more spectacular than the ones I was looking at. In addition to the rainbow mentioned in Genesis, there’s also one surrounding God’s heavenly throne, another encircling an angel, and still another around the Lord himself.
I think of Nate in relation to all this sparkling beauty and wonder what he must think. I knew him well after 40 years of marriage and would have had the right answers on a quiz about what he was thinking in any given situation. But now I can’t say.
The one thing I do know is that some day I’ll see these supernatural rainbows, too, and become acquainted with the sunshine of heaven, which we’re told is actually Jesus. My guess is that his light will transform every heavenly thing into sparkles. With all the jeweled walls of the city and crowns of the saints, my afternoon rainbows will be small potatoes compared to how things will shine in glory. And Jesus himself, as the bright light of heaven, will be the sparkliest of all!
This afternoon I came home from the beach with a baggie of pretty beach stones. Will heaven have a beach? I know there’s a sea-like-crystal there, and I’m wondering, will the stones at the water’s edge be genuine jewels? Maybe the sand, too? And will Jesus be standing there? Oh my…
If that’s all true, I know why God keeps the wonders of heaven beyond our imaginations, because trying to picture them now is taking my breath away!
“The Lord their God will save his people on that day… They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.” (Zechariah 9:16)
I LOVE THIS ONE! GLITTER! And we started Zechariah today. . .how fitting 🙂
Weez, I love you!
Mom, thank you! Since Papa died I think about death much more than I ever did. In some ways it’s good because it helps me keep perspective and makes me want to treat everyone better. But sometimes I’m just sad. I have to remind myself to think about heaven this way… that the unknown part of it isn’t scary, but beautiful in a way I can’t understand right now.
Heaven and all it’s beauty is so much more real,when a close loved one lives there.
Loved this blog, Midge. Don’t we all come alive and ‘shine’ when the light of Jesus comes into our lives and even ‘glisten’ at times when He shines through us to touch someone else. What a blessed comfort it is to know our loved ones who have gone before us are existing is such spendor! Death is a part of life we don’t really like to talk about or even think about, but – they both happen. I loved the way apostle Paul put it – ‘..to be absent from the body is to be present with Jesus”…that thought, I can live with.
I’ve just finished listening to an audio publication of a new book “Heaven is for Real”–it’s an amazing true story of a 4 year old’s time in heaven during an emergency appendectomy–all the colors he saw, people and animals, etc while sitting on Jesus’ lap. My husband’s company produced the cds for this book—www.oasisaudio.com
I love today’s devotion! Yesterday at church, we watched Max Lucado’s video on Heaven and Hell from his book John 3:16. It was wonderful! Your piece today reminds me of so many things he said in the video. It makes me feel more at peace to picture my husband there. We both loved the ocean and the beach so this commentary today is very special. Thank you for the time you spend writing these devotions for us.
I have just finished reading N.T.Wright’s books, Surprised by Hope, and After You Believe. His words I can understand with both heart and head and I do believe that the new heaven and new earth will be right here. We think the earth is beautiful now but just wait until Jesus comes again, we are given our resurrection body, and creation is like it was in Genesis – wow, then it will really be a beautiful earth!!
Margaret, I’ve become a regular reader of your blog over the past year-and-a-half, and I can’t tell you how many times your daily post seems to speak directly to my life. My Mom’s sister, one of my dear aunts, passed away last Tuesday after a much-too-short battle with neuroendochrine cancer. My brother, her godson and an ordained minister, performed her service and told the story of a pastor whose wife had passed away. Someone consoled the pastor by saying, “I’m so sorry for your loss,” to which he replied, “Thank you, but my wife isn’t lost. I know exactly where she is. It’s me who feels a little lost.” Those of us left on earth will naturally feel sad when someone we love so much is gone. But we have to focus on the rainbows and sunshine, God’s reminders that what’s to come — and what our loved ones already see — is far better than what we can see here. Thanks again and keep writing.
There is so much beauty that awaits us, and I like you wonder what my husband Pete is seeing now. My heart and mind are on things above and not on earthly things. Sigh.