What a Glorious Sight

What a Glorious Sight
“Don't you wanna hear him call your name
When you're standing at the pearly gates
I told the preacher, "Yes I do"
But I hope they don't call today”

“Next time you got the good Lord's ear
Say I'm coming but there ain't no hurry
I'm having fun down here”

“Someday I want to see those streets of gold in my halo
But I wouldn't mind waiting at least a hundred years or so”

Kenny Chesney ends his Billboard #1 with a modified version of the chorus:

“Everybody wanna go to heaven
But nobody wanna go now
I think I speak for the crowd”

I also think he speaks for the crowd. I’ve yet to meet anyone who when probed about the prospect of heaven, doesn’t want to go there. Even more, most everyone when asked has a sincere belief that they will be in heaven, despite having nothing in their life that resembles Christian religion.

I’m afraid that when I probe my own heart, I have these feelings from time to time. An upcoming milestone or vacation occupies my focus, and for weeks or even months, heaven ceases to be my primary focus and is placed behind my own desires of the here and now. What a terrible error of valuation to place these temporary pleasures before the eternal joy Christ has set before me.

John gives a firm word about the origination of this mindset, and an encouragement for the reward of the true believer:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him…And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1John 2:15-17)

I pray we might all cultivate more joy in our hearts concerning that inevitable coming day. I offer a substitute to Mr. Chesney’s subpar lyrics:

“Lo what a glorious sight appears,
To our believing eyes,
The earth and seas are passed away
And the old rolling skies”