A man who was on his death bed, asked his neighbour, who visited him, what it looks like in heaven, if the streets of heaven are really of gold. The neighbour didn’t know what to answer. Just then they heard scratching on the bedroom door which was closed. The neighbour then said: “It is my dog. He doesn’t know what it looks like here, but he knows I’m here. He wants to be with me.” And so the man got his answer.
We may often wonder about heaven, what it looks like, how it will be, if we will see our loved ones, and are the streets of gold? We all look forward to being in heaven. But someone said: “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.” With Paul it was different. He wanted to “depart”: Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account (Phil.1:22 – 24). Paul didn’t say that he longed to go to heaven; he yearned to be with Christ. Why was it so important to Paul to be with Christ? It was because he had met the risen and glorified Jesus, Christ the Lord. Previously he was very religious and thought that he could obtain pardon of sin by keeping the law: If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But then Paul came to know Christ. That radically changed his life: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ (Phil. 3:4 – 9).
Paul was aware of what happened to Christ; that which had been prophesied by Isaiah 700 years before: He was despised … Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;… But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Is.53:3 – 6).
Once we realise how great the love of God in Jesus is, we shall long to depart and be with Christ. Then that will be all that we desire. The streets of gold will no longer be important.
Lord, thank you that we can look forward to being with Christ when we die. Amen.
