Sometimes I want heaven now
Sometimes I want heaven now. No, I don't mean I want to die and go to heaven. I mean I want heaven in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />the here and now. What I mean is something along the lines of what Jesus taught us to pray: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Is this like asking God to make things as right on earth as they are in heaven? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Much in this world is not right. To borrow the title of one of my favorite books, things are: "Not the way it's supposed to be." When I say I want heaven now, what I mean is that I want things to be the way they're supposed to be. Unrealistic? Perhaps. But my relationship with the God of heaven causes me to long for a heaven-like place-to long for righteousness -for things to be right. Yet how should things be for them to be heaven-like? I envision a place characterized by the "no mores" described in the book of Revelation.
"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:3-4)
If I find myself longing for a world absent death, mourning, crying and pain, then I long for things on earth to be as they are in heaven. I long for "the dwelling of God to be with men." To long for these realities is to envision something far different from this world. Perhaps one could even say it is to long for unreality in the midst of the harsh realities of life in a world full of death, mourning, crying and pain. But I do long for this. God's Spirit who lives in me is the cause of my longing for a world filled with the presence of God (Romans 8:18-27) and the absence of the things that His presence removes (Note that God "… will wipe every tear from their eyes").
There is much to cry about in our world--much to mourn over. "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). They are blessed because their comforter is the God who wipes tears away. When tears fill my eyes, I need God to wipe them away. Tears are a universal human language. But imagine a world where there is nothing to cry over. Imagine a world without pain. On earth as it is in heaven! Let it be.
How then do I reconcile my desire for heaven and my life in the present world? Deep inside I think that the answer to this question will unlock the door to living with sanity and hope in a world of death, mourning, crying and pain.
For life to be as close as possible to what it was meant to be, it must be lived in the presence of the one who comforts mourners and wipes tears away. It also must be lived like the one who comforts (II Corinthians 1:3-4). All of this requires that I live by faith not by sight. Many times this world (and my life) is not a pretty sight. What I see often bothers me. Something inside screams against the evil, violence, unfaithfulness-sin of this world.
Yet I must live by faith that the one seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" and then said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true" is the source of life and hope. He is the one who said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End."
"To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life."
Drink freely and live-now. 
Steve Cornell