I just finished reading Heaven by Randy Alcorn. I highly recommend it! Because of the losses I have faced personally and we as a church have faced and continue to face, I wanted to learn more about where we keep saying we will see our loved ones again – heaven. Honestly, the book made me long for heaven. While God is with me each and every day, I truly cannot wait to be with Him for eternity in this beautiful, holy place. All around there is such beauty in our world. It is God’s creation, yet it is marred by sin, making me long for heaven. I long to see Jesus face to face.

Job did experience beauty and blessing on this earth, which is what attracted Satan to him. Job was faithful to God and followed Him, but Satan questioned the genuineness of this faith. What if all the blessings were removed? The hardship that came as the result was incredible. Job and his family suffered in unbelievable ways. Yet he never stopped trusting in God.

We get a little insight into how he trusted God so completely in overwhelming hardship when he says in Job 19:25-27, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”

Job had hope! While he knew that this suffering he faced was not due to unrepentant sin, he also knew that he could not stand before God in his own righteousness. David L. McKenna in The Communicator’s Commentary explains “His blameless behavior is not enough to redeem him. A brother who is willing to shed his blood on Job’s behalf is his only hope. He dares to believe that such a brother exists and will vindicate him in the future. Job foresees the Atonement.” He knows that this hope is his anchor as he goes through pain and suffering. This world is not all there is, and he has a glorious future awaiting where there will be no pain or suffering, no sin or sorrow. Though the birth of the Savior is centuries away, Job lives in that hope by faith.

We have the beauty of knowing the rest of the story that Job only rests his hope on. We know that Jesus did take the sins of all mankind upon Himself. He paid the penalty for the sins of all, so that we could stand before God blameless. Yet, He did not stay dead. Jesus had victory over death, and we serve a living Savior. We have access to the Father, who is even now preparing a place for us.

We have often heard the phrase “This world is not our home,” however, we try to find heaven here on earth. God has placed within each one of us a longing for Him. That longing will only be satisfied when we are with Him in heaven. Knowing this, as we journey here on earth, though we will find beauty in it, allow the pain and suffering to remind us of our hope yet to come. Allow hope to spring through. Also be reminded that God is right there with us on this earthly journey. I loved a quote shared with me a few weeks ago by Marshall Segal. “Better to have a world like ours with God, than to have any other world without Him.” He is with us each moment here on earth, but the exciting thing is the eternity that awaits us with Him!

In His Love,

Susan