Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. Hebrews 6:18-19 (Excerpted)

For centuries of Christianity, hope meant just one thing: the expectation of a glorious eternity in Heaven.

There’s a lot of talk about hope these days.  We hope for a better life in the future—a faithful life partner, for children or grandchildren and for a better economic, social, and physical world. In the past, points out Elizabeth Sherrill, people hoped for little on this earth beyond staying alive past 40 and not losing children in childbirth or to disease. All the way back to the Egyptians, life was hard, and the afterlife was what people longed for.

But when was the last time you heard someone talking about Heaven?  As in, “It’s a real place and I’m going there!”  “‘It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world,’ C.S. Lewis thought, ‘that they have become so ineffective in this. [world]’ From the deeds of a small group of apostles to the handful of English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, ‘all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.'”[1]

The Bible book of Hebrews calls Heaven, “the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls” (Hebrews 6-18-19).  For the follower of Jesus, the hope of Heaven holds us firmly in the storms of life and leads us, in the here and now, into the very presence of God where Jesus waits and where our souls find their deepest and most satisfying delight.  Followers of Jesus let’s think about Heaven!

[1] Sherrill, Elizabeth. “The Anchor.” All the Way to Heaven, Fleming H. Revell, Grand Rapids, MI, 2002, pp. 154–155.