Mysterious Hope
Scripture Reading — 1 John 3:1-3
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him.
The women’s Bible study at my church had a discussion about heaven. What will it be like? What will we be like when we are there?
The answers to these questions were as varied as the women in the room. Some of the musicians in the room said that we will sing praise to God all the time. One woman who was very active said that she couldn’t imagine standing still all day long in order to sing.
In the end, we don’t know exactly what heaven will be like, or what we will be like when Jesus returns to live with us in a new heaven and earth (Revelation 21). We can imagine it, but the Bible doesn’t give many details about the life to come.
As 1 John 3:2 puts it, “What we will be has not yet been made known.” We will only know when the time comes—and not before then.
But the Bible does tell us clearly about something that is much more important than those details. It says that “when Christ appears, we shall be like him.”
Because of God’s love for us in Christ, we will actually become like Christ. That will allow us to enjoy communion with God.
Until then, we are already children of God, loved by him and called his own.
God our Father, thank you for calling us your children. Make us like Christ when he appears, so that we can be with you forever. Give us patience as we wait on this mysterious hope. Amen.
About the author — Rebecca Jordan Heys
Rebecca Jordan Heys serves as a pastor at Calvin Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She and her husband, Kyle, are the parents of two children.
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