HEAVEN'S ACTIVITIES
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit....And my chosen people shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isa. 65:21, 22, R.S.V.
Jesus told His friends that He would be building mansions in heaven for all the redeemed. It's a comforting idea, knowing that our arrival in the New Jerusalem won't catch anyone by surprise and that our needs will be well met.
But I fear it has given some the idea that in heaven God will do for us everything that needs to be done, that we will enjoy some kind of well-deserved vacation from responsibilities. God will build; we will inhabit. We could even conclude: God will compose the music; we will learn it. God will write the poetry; we will recite it. God will create, and we will observe. "After all," we might say, "God could do a much better job than we could in all these things."
But could God Himself find satisfaction in a heaven full of appreciative spectators? Would it bring delight to Him to have the balconies of heaven full of applauding audiences, while He does what God does, especially alone? Would God give us the capacity to be creative, only to let it become dormant in heaven?
I have a growing picture of a God who will approach His friends in the new earth and say--with eager expectancy--"Will you show Me the house you have just built? I'd be delighted to see how you designed the landscaping and crafted an appealing life-space."
I can picture Him coming to another and saying, "Please, sing Me the song you have just composed! You've always blessed Me with your music in the past, and your abilities are really soaring into new realms." I can see Him meeting another on a golden boulevard and asking him about the new components he has been creating in his experimental laboratories. Or listening to yet another as he finds new ways to express his insights into the history of redemption.
God created His people that He might enter into the delights of two-way interaction with them. This means--incredibly--that we humans are God-built with capacities to satisfy the heart of God Himself! What other reason would He have had for creating us in the first place?
Should it not follow that God takes delight even now in seeing His people develop their creative capacities to think and to do?
They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit....And my chosen people shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Isa. 65:21, 22, R.S.V.
Jesus told His friends that He would be building mansions in heaven for all the redeemed. It's a comforting idea, knowing that our arrival in the New Jerusalem won't catch anyone by surprise and that our needs will be well met.
But I fear it has given some the idea that in heaven God will do for us everything that needs to be done, that we will enjoy some kind of well-deserved vacation from responsibilities. God will build; we will inhabit. We could even conclude: God will compose the music; we will learn it. God will write the poetry; we will recite it. God will create, and we will observe. "After all," we might say, "God could do a much better job than we could in all these things."
But could God Himself find satisfaction in a heaven full of appreciative spectators? Would it bring delight to Him to have the balconies of heaven full of applauding audiences, while He does what God does, especially alone? Would God give us the capacity to be creative, only to let it become dormant in heaven?
I have a growing picture of a God who will approach His friends in the new earth and say--with eager expectancy--"Will you show Me the house you have just built? I'd be delighted to see how you designed the landscaping and crafted an appealing life-space."
I can picture Him coming to another and saying, "Please, sing Me the song you have just composed! You've always blessed Me with your music in the past, and your abilities are really soaring into new realms." I can see Him meeting another on a golden boulevard and asking him about the new components he has been creating in his experimental laboratories. Or listening to yet another as he finds new ways to express his insights into the history of redemption.
God created His people that He might enter into the delights of two-way interaction with them. This means--incredibly--that we humans are God-built with capacities to satisfy the heart of God Himself! What other reason would He have had for creating us in the first place?
Should it not follow that God takes delight even now in seeing His people develop their creative capacities to think and to do?
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