”He has also set eternity in the human heart.” Ecc 3:11
Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. It is focused on close relationships, hearth, and generosity. Why do so many of us love Christmas? I have come to believe it is because Christmas is centered on a theme that I think is very near and dear to our hearts: Hope. And if you don’t believe me, suicide rates drop around Christmas. Seems contrary to nature, but I googled it (Yep, this is what I do in my spare time). Yes, Christmas awakens Hope. And without Hope the heart aches in pain, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Prov 13:12). If you deprive yourself of hope, you will deprive yourself of life. Hope enables you to live and endure the present circumstances of life because for you to have hope there is something you must be looking forward to and holding on to that gives you the strength to move forward.
Which leads me to my next observation. Christmas has another side to it, a side that is less than enjoyable. This side of Christmas can inspire a love-hate relationship to the holiday. Christmas has a strange way of awakening longings in each of us. We start to pine away for the things we don’t have. And if you are still unsure, just think about how we begin the holidays with the biggest shopping day of the year - Black Friday.
We all have our own version of Christmas, the way we wish Christmas was and the things we long for - we long for our own version of the perfect family, one in which our family was closer and more loving. A family that is like the kinds you see on Lifetime TV around Christmastime. Or you may long for the perfect husband or children. You may long for a victorian mansion and white picket fence. We each have our own version of the perfect Christmas, the way we think life should be. And it is around Christmas that we are reminded that it is not that way at all. Yes, Christmas awaken longings for a better life.
Why do we long for so much? Why do hopes and dreams lead to despair? Because we all have our own version of heaven in this life and we can’t have it. Because what we are really longing for is heaven. Eternity, or Paradise, is written on our hearts. We were meant for eternity. It doesn’t take long to reach the conclusion that this life is not paradise. It’s earth. It was paradise. But then came the Fall. And now it is a fallen world.
I find myself wandering: is there any remedy for this? Are we doomed pine away and long for what we cannot have in this life? I think to a certain degree that is true. We cling to the hope that comes from the return of Christ and eternity with Him. But I also think that in a way, God is the piece of heaven that we have on this earth. I say piece because we do not yet fully know God “for now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). He is where heaven meets earth.
“Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21). The more we know Him the more His kingdom becomes a reality within us. If you are following Christ and believing in Him, as you grow in knowledge of God, you will experience more and more of heaven and His kingdom will be lived out through you. I think in a sense, if you believe and follow Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, heaven is inside of you, just not to its full measure.
