And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom you have sent. – John 17:3
We have a lot of ideas about what heaven will be like, don’t we? When we think about eternal life, our minds are filled with all sorts of imagery we’ve seen in paintings and illustrations of heaven. Maybe you think of a staircase leading up to pearly gates, or streets of gold adjacent to a crystal sea. Maybe you think of angels floating on clouds and playing harps. Maybe when you think about eternal life your mind is filled with images of mansions, or of the welcome table filled with every kind of food you can imagine!
Is this what heaven will be like? A lot of the images we find in Scripture may just be the closest earthly equivalent to what the authors’ saw in their visions of heaven. In reality, we don’t exactly know what heaven
will be like.
will be like.
But, Scripture does tell us what we need to know. It tells us that the primary feature of eternal life will be a relationship with God. That’s what Jesus was saying in John 17. Eternal life is to know God and his Son
Jesus. Ultimately eternal life isn’t about the streets of gold, mansions, or any of that other stuff. It’s about living in eternal relationship with the God who loves you.
Jesus. Ultimately eternal life isn’t about the streets of gold, mansions, or any of that other stuff. It’s about living in eternal relationship with the God who loves you.
The wonderful thing is that we don’t have to wait to go to heaven to get to know him. We can have a relationship with our God right here and now. Do you know him?