What is the best thing about heaven? The best thing is not that we will again see our loved ones who die in the Lord, although that will be wonderful. The best thing is not that we will have resurrection bodies, though many of us can hardly wait for that. Nor is the best thing that the earth will be restored.
So what could be better than all these wonderful things? The very best thing about heaven is that we will be united with the Lord Himself, who is our life and joy. All the joys of this heaven and earth -- and the next heaven and earth -- wonderful as they are, are secondary joys. They pale in comparison to the joys of knowing the triune God who is our chief joy.
In Psalm 16:2, David is right when he says, “I say to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.’” In fact, the joys of those will increase who run after the one true God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Those joys will be multiplied in heaven. Our hearts have capacities for joy that have not yet been tapped. But heaven will reveal how great and deep and lasting are the joys to be found in God alone.
Perhaps that is why the psalmist ends Psalm 16 with the words, “You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand” (vs 11). Eternal joy and lasting pleasures found in Him -- that is the best thing about heaven.
-- Adapted from “How to Finish the Christian Life: Following Jesus in the Second Half” by Donald W. Sweeting & George Sweeting
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