“Ever since I was a little child, the ranch has meant to me my little heaven on earth. I rolled down the windows of my four-wheel drive and drank in the beauty and the solitude, the warmth of the sun, the sight of horses grazing in the fields, and the smell of the hay meadows. As I allowed myself to feel that quiet a sentence popped up out of my heart. I really could be happy here without God!” -John Eldredge
Sounds like he was somewhere in the Council valley. We are so privileged to live in such a beautiful place, but it’s just that grandeur that can become such a danger to us, for we can become fooled into thinking, in the words of a recent commercial “It doesn’t get any better than this!” And like Eldredge, “I really could be happy here without God!”
Could you? Or could I? “NO”, because we are eternal beings with eternal desires existing in a temporal place, designed to prepare us for an everlasting existence in relationship with our Creator. In the words of an old-time favorite hymn, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through.” And God must take away the heaven we create here on earth even if it is only in our minds, or it will become our hell.
The real issue is I haven’t wanted to be an eternal person. I’ve wanted to find life here somehow.
Even for most Christians, heaven is a backup plan. Our primary work is finding a life we can at least get a little pleasure from here. Heaven is an investment we’ve made, like Treasury bonds or a retirement account, which we’re hoping will take care of us in the future sometime, but which we do not give much thought to at present. It’s tucked away in a drawer at the back of our minds, while we throw our immediate energies into playing the earth market. God comes in like a corporate raider, ruining our plans as we watch our ‘stocks” go into a tailspin.
As our little heaven on earth crumbles either through circumstances, experienced emptiness, or honest evaluation, we realize we were made for more than this. Nothing in this temporal time of our earthly existence will satisfy our built-in eternal desire for God and our designed destiny in His kingdom.
As great as Council is, because we are designed for a different destiny, like ET, we all should experience the desire to go “Home.” In John 14:2 Jesus said, “I am going to prepare a place for you.” If He has been gone this long preparing a place perfectly suited, for us, how awesome that will be!
