05 Jun What Can You Do on the Sabbath Now and in Heaven?
When our kids were little, we would tell them about Heaven. Grace’s dad was a pastor who passed away when the kids were still young. After Grandpa Gib went to be with Jesus, our kids had a lot of questions about what it would be like in eternity when we got our perfect resurrection bodies, Heaven and Earth came together, and everything and everyone was made whole and well forever.
We explained to the kids that our day off, or Sabbath, in this life was God’s way of getting us to prepare and practice for Heaven. This is what Jesus meant saying in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” The Sabbath is a gift God gave us to enjoy. Rather than long list of man-made religious rules, we are to operate by our conscience guided by the Holy Spirit to decide what makes us more happy, holy, and healthy on the Sabbath. Critical and judgmental religious types hate this kind of freedom. The truth is different people find different things restful. This is what Paul was driving at saying in Colossians 2:16, “let no one pass judgment on you…with regard to…a Sabbath.”
In Heaven, we will get to do the same things we enjoy on our Sabbath in this life. There will be sports, music, learning, reading books, art, crafts, swimming, hikes, pets, cooking, parties, baking, solitude, hikes, fishing, gardening, playing games, travel, adventure, surfing, and yes napping just like Jesus who took a nap on the earth to set an example for us on how to Sabbath. Too often, we think of Heaven in terms of the very bad religious art where we sit on a cloud in a diaper plinking a harp looking at a glory cloud forever pretending we love it, which would be a sinful lie. The truth is, Heaven and Earth were together in Genesis 1-2, and come together in the end. The same kind of stuff that Adam and Eve got to enjoy before sin entered the world is the same kind of stuff that we will get to enjoy once sin has been ripped from the world. So long as it’s not sinful, the odds are good that whatever you enjoy on your day off in this life, you will get to continue to enjoy forever in Heaven. And, that’s different for every person since God is a Father who likes to provide variety for His kids to have fun.
What are you most looking forward to doing in Heaven?
