Our world could use some good news couldn’t it? In many ways it’s a frightening time in which to be living; wars, rumors of wars, the constant threat of terrorism, violence in the classrooms, families torn apart by abuse and divorce, and so many friends and relatives with cancer. Life is not only hard; it’s often downright unfair, as some people seem to have more than their share of troubles. You might even be one of those people.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we lived in a world where everything was fair and people didn’t get sick, and sad things didn’t happen, and nobody had to die?
Did you ever wonder why there’s a longing in each of us for just such a kind of place? It’s a longing for home, you know. A longing for our real home. You see, we weren’t created to live in California or New York or anywhere else on this planet. We were created for our real home: Heaven.
The Bible describes Heaven in Revelation 21:4 as a place where God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.” 
And why won’t there be any more tears or death or sorrow or pain? Not because we’ll have all the money we ever wanted or all the fame or all the knowledge or any other tangible item.
It’s because we’ll have God Himself.
In Revelation 21:3, the verse right before the one about no more tears, it says: “Look! God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them and they will be his people.”
That’s why there won’t be any more tears or pain or death. We’ll have what we always really needed to be whole—the constant presence of God Himself.
The great 17th-century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote that inside each person is a “God-shaped vacuum.” There’s a hole, so to speak, in our hearts which leaves us longing for something more than this world has to offer. It’s a hole and a longing that God put in us when He created us. He knows only He can fill that hole even though we try to fill it ourselves with all sorts of things. Buying “stuff.” Relationships. Work. Sports. Learning. Religious rituals. Some even try things like food, sex, drugs or alcohol. But none of these can fill the God-shaped vacuum in us…instead they only make it bigger.
The only thing that fills that hole and makes us whole is when God fills it with Himself by putting His very Spirit inside us, one life at a time.
That’s right. We find true joy, true fulfillment when we realize there’s Someone bigger than us. Someone greater than us. Someone worthy of every bit of praise we can give. We were created to praise God with our lips…and our lives.
And when we do, we experience a peace that hardly can be described. It’s a feeling that reminds us this world is not where we belong and that one day our longing for our real Home will be satisfied.
(Be sure to open this in your browser to enjoy the music video below “There Will Be a Day” by Jeremy Camp.)
