“In the last days, God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams’” (Acts 2:17, NIV).

I have a friend whose beloved Christian son was severely limited by illness. His son died tragically eight months ago. Waves of grief still pass over my friend. Today he told me, “I had a dream. I lived in a wealthy house that you could approach only by water. One day a boat arrived with my family, but I could not see my son. When I looked in the water, he was there, swimming and carrying his younger sister on his back, saving her from drowning. He looked up at me, and he was happy. You know, he could never swim when he was alive, and he was rarely happy. I think the dream was telling me that he is now okay and watching over his sisters.”

I have no doubt that my friend’s dream was more than a psychological projection of deep longing, but that it was indeed a vision from God. I have no doubt that my friend’s son is free from all his struggles and has a new and glorious body—and can even swim—and is happy. I have no doubt that this son my friend loves is alive in Christ and watching over his sisters.

Just because a truth is too beautiful to be true does not mean that it is only imagined. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, “We hunger because there is food, and we thirst because there is water.” So, I know that it is true: we long for heaven because it waits for us.

Our whole life as Christians is like that. We live a life in our bodies with a hope that is too beautiful to believe, and yet, this hope is true. And it is because of this hope that we love the unlovely, care for the broken, forgive the horrendous and suffer with a deep sense of joy when it is our turn to cry. Such behavior would be foolish without the hope we live for—the hope in Christ that brings His presence into our lives and offers a life of unimaginable beauty when these bodies wear out in a world that teases us with temporary happiness.

Dear Father,
Thank you for the glory of your presence in this life and the certain hope of resurrection into the next.
Amen