Extreme Makeover (Heaven Edition)

For most of us, our concept of heaven comes from Revelation 21:1-4. John, who was exiled on the isle of Patmos, had a vision of Heaven. Here is what he saw: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 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.” 


In the next two or three posts, I want to whet our appetites for heaven by discussing John's vision. Today, I want to drill down on verse 1: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away...."Whatever heaven is today, after the rapture, after the millennial reign of Jesus on Planet Earth, God is going to create a new heaven. What will it be like? I don't really know. All I can say is that God is a master at radically transforming what is old into some something amazingly better. I mean, think about your own experience of transformation for a moment. Paul describes it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 


Would you say that your life is dramatically better since you accepted Christ as your Savior? Is your new life more enriched than your old life? Is there a vast improvement? Most of us would say an emphatic "YES!"


So let me state the obvious. If God made such a radical, fabulous transformation from the old you to the new you, don't you think He is going to do a glorious work in transforming the current heaven into the new heaven! In fact, Revelation 21:4 uses the same phrase about the transformation of the new heaven as Paul used to describe our transformation...the old order of things has passed away! Talk about an extreme makeover! I can't wait to see it!