Look Up
It’s so normal to spend our time, energy, and attention focusing on the here and now. We’re busy, after all. Sometimes we're preoccupied. And when we stop to really think about it, it’s difficult to perceive something beyond our five senses.
But in his letter to the Colossians, Paul encourages his fellow believers to look up:
“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.”
Colossians 3:1 NLT
Think about that. The realities of heaven. As you think about Paul’s words, here are four things to consider:
1. Heaven isn’t some vague, dream-like state. It’s a real place, with real people, where God is the true King.
2. There will come a day when we will all meet God face to face. Everything we’ve hoped for will finally be revealed.
3. Our troubles and our heartbreaks (and even death itself) are temporary! Scripture tells us that a time is coming when God will do away with pain and death and sickness and suffering—forever.
4. God is still on His throne, with Jesus beside Him in the place of honor. No matter how crazy, senseless, or heartbreaking the world can seem, we can have confidence knowing that nothing is outside of God’s sovereign plan.
So when you’re tempted to look around at others or look inward at yourself, look up instead. Heaven is wherever God is, and that’s the truest reality of all.
Jeremiah 29
English Standard Version
Jeremiah's Letter to the Exiles
29 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: 4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; ...