It is strange that there is so little said in the bible concerning this great subject of heaven. It would appear after all to be of great concern to many. What is heaven like? How do I get to heaven? Are my loved ones in heaven? Is heaven real? Amongst the few passages of the bible which speak of heaven explicitly is Revelation chapter 4. There is much in this chapter that is not new. We already knew that heaven has a door, only one, that door is Jesus Christ (John chp 10 vs 9). We have perhaps already heard the voice that calls us into heaven? "My sheep hear my voice and they follow me" (john 10:27). Heaven is also the place of separation, that is a holy separation between the perfection of heaven and sinfulness of man's world. A holiness and purity symbolised by the crystal sea of Revelation chapter 4. 

In all of this description of heaven there is also a sense of tragedy. This is the secret tragedy of heaven. Symbolically before the throne of heaven are four living creatures (beasts in the some translations). These angelic beings symbolise the character of God. God is lion like, sovereign, powerful and in control. He is Lord and King, ordering and ordaining time and human history for His own purposes. He is also the one in overall control of our own personal lives and experiences. Those coincidences were anything but coincidences! Those disappointments were Divine appointments! Those unexpected encounters and events may have been unexpected to you but not to God! He is moving over time and behind the scenes of time. 

God is also calf like, the sacrificial animal, providing a way into His perfect heaven for imperfect men and women, that by means of sacrifice, shed blood and the offering of His Son Jesus Christ at Calvary.

God has the face of a man, incarnate as Jesus, revealing the invisible God we could not know nor encounter but by the Lord Jesus drawing close in time. 

Here then is the great secret tragedy of heaven. If we fail to gain entry to God's dwelling, the tragedy lies in this that all of my life He has been seeking for me, seeking to save, searching and calling for the lost sheep, lost coin and prodigal son. If I am lost it is because and refused to allow Him to find me. He has been calling and moving and revealing all of my life. 

Let us not miss Him; "I am come to seek and to save that which was lost".

The Truth Trek 

A gospel ministry from 

Grace in Christ 

Dr J Stewart Gillespie