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Who Do You Want To See?

 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  (Psalm 73:25-26)

But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (II Samuel 12:23)

          Some people like to post question on social media like, “Who will be the first person you look for in heaven?” And while I have a list of people I’d like to see, and a bigger list of people I’d like to meet, there are verses like Psalm 73:25-26, which came up as the verse of the day on Biblegateway.com. Part of me looks at the part of me with the list and says, “Hey! Heaven is about God!”

          Most people would probably say, “Well, yeah. Of course, God, but He’s a given who doesn’t need to be mentioned.” They might quote II Samuel 12:23 as their justification. David clearly considered meeting his son in heaven. So it’s OK to look forward to God and the people who have gone before us.

          I agree. But I think the point is that our longing for heaven should be a LONGING FOR GOD and a longing for those who have gone before. If we love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths, we shouldn’t fail to mention Him because He’s a given. He is our first, second, third, and fourth through ninety-nineth reason for heaven. All those who have gone before that we want to be with are reason 100.

            This may be coming to mind in part because I’m starting to wind things down at Hillcrest and starting to think about Erie. Shifting between the two tends to unsettle me. It’s like I’m coming up to New Year’s Day or my birthday and have to set goals for the coming year – but it’s only 6 months long (and only a month between when I get home and when I need to have my goals set for my near year in terms of age.) One of the issues that tends to rear its ugly head when I am preparing for shifts is how much a failure I am in terms of my relationship with God, in terms of my relationship with other people, etc. And, of course, that means troubles with definitions.

            Do I really love God? Do I actually trust Him? Am I being obedient? A song that is coming to mind often lately is Jesus Take Me As I Am. But as much as it seems to be my song at the moment, it doesn’t mean that I -or we – should kick back and make it a command. It’s a plea.

            And so my prayer is that God will reveal Himself in a way that causes me to fall in love with Him, even if I don’t identify it as falling in love, and in a way that causes me to trust Him even if I don’t see it. I long to look at going to heaven as being all about God, and, oh yeah, those other folks, instead of those other folks and oh, yeah, God. 

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