“Because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself” (2 Corinthians 4:14, NIV).

When he was young, we prayed desperately for his acute leukemia, and God worked through physicians to heal him. He’s older now with children of his own. His father graduated to glory many years ago. His mother joined him this past Good Friday. After our Sunday Easter service, he shared a story with me: “Mom spent her last days in a hospice house with her window overlooking a pond. When we stayed with her, each day we would watch this male mallard duck come settle on the pond, but never with its hen. Every day the same. Then, Mom died this past Friday. That day, after Mom had gone, I watched the mallard fly in as always to land on the pond, and then its mate flew in to land beside him.

I don’t often read books about the details of heaven. Heaven for me is more a Person to whom I go than a place I hope to enjoy. Nevertheless, there are four things I earnestly hope for and expect when I pass over to glory.

The first is that I will see Jesus, fully and unhindered, that I will rest in the arms of the Father and be filled with His Spirit in a way that I am finally whole and finally home.

Secondly, I hope and expect I will continue my personhood, that I will be me, a transformed, purified and fully conscious person, not left in an impersonal nirvana that many others in this world seek.

Third, I eagerly expect to find suffering redeemed, that “everything sad will become untrue,” as C.S. Lewis said—all the physical pain, the pain of separation, the broken dreams and brokenness of loved ones will be gone, redeemed and remembered with gratitude for God’s work within them.

Finally, like the mallards above, I hope and fully expect to meet those I love—to share time, stories and tears of joy, unencumbered by the weight this world now lays upon us. The one word that assures me most in this hope is the word, “together.”

“Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17, NKJV).

The One to whom I go is sufficient, but, based on the infallible Word of God, I do eagerly expect the rest.

Dear Father,

Help me live now in constant gratitude for the forever you have planned.

Amen