Words of Hope…
One reminder alone remains: our Redeemer will always carry
the marks of His crucifixion, the only traces of the cruel work that
sin has done. Through eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will reveal
His praise and declare His power.
Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare homes for
them in the Father’s house. Human language cannot describe the
reward of the righteous. Only those who see it will truly know it.
No finite mind can comprehend the glory of the Paradise of God!
The Bible calls the inheritance of the saved “a country” (Hebrews
11:14-16). There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains
of living waters. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows on the paths God has
prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. Wide-spreading plains rise into beautiful hills, and the mountains of God lift their high summits.
On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God’s people,
who have been pilgrims and wanderers for so long, will find a home.
“They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards
and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat; … My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” “The wilderness and the wasteland shall be
glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.” “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down
with the young goat, … and a little child shall lead them…. They
shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.” (Isaiah 65:21,
22; 35:1; 11:6, 9.)
Pain cannot exist in heaven. There will be no more tears, no
funeral processions. “There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor
crying…, for the former things have passed away.” “The inhabitant
will not say, ‘I am sick’; the people who dwell in it will be forgiven
their iniquity.” (Revelation 21:4; Isaiah 33:24.)
There is the New Jerusalem, the capital city of the glorified new
earth. “Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone,
clear as crystal.” “The nations of those who are saved shall walk
in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor
into it.” “The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with
them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them
and be their God.” (Revelation 21:11, 24, 3.)
In the City of God “there shall be no night” (Revelation 22:5).
There will be no tiredness. We will always feel the freshness of
the morning and always be far from its close. The light of the sun
will be surpassed by a radiance that is not painfully dazzling, yet
immeasurably exceeds the brightness of our noonday. The redeemed
walk in the glory of perpetual day.
“I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are its temple” (Revelation 21:22). The people of God are privileged
to interact freely with the Father and the Son. Now we see the image
of God like something in a mirror, but then we will see Him face to
face, without a dimming veil between.
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Source: Ellen G. White, The Great Hope, pp. 88-89.