This is a favourite phrase of Dave’s, quoted in many of his sermons. The enthusiasm of the phrase overcomes my irritation at the double negative (allowed in other languages to emphasise a point, but not in standard English!) I understand the sentiment behind the words: eager expectation and anticipation of what is yet to come.
A teenager often finds it hard to get beyond the idea that life will always be full of woe (‘my best friend’s fallen out with me’, ‘I’ve failed this exam so I’m useless and will end up on the scrap heap’, ‘my boyfriend’s left me so I’ll be alone for ever’, ‘this spot on my face means no one will ever talk to me again’…), but we can also often be lulled into a false sense of security that what we currently see is all there is to life. Peter warns that there will always be scoffers who say, ‘“Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Pet 3:4 TNIV) People mock faith constantly because of the tension between the now and the not yet.
We live in the world but are not of the world (John 17: 6-19 TNIV). We live as ‘foreigners and strangers on earth’ (Hebrews 11: 13 TNIV). We live in the flesh but are born again of the Spirit (Rom 6-8 TNIV). And we live in constant expectation that there is more to come: ‘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, for we shall see him as he is.’ (1 John 3:2)
The Bible talks about earth and heaven and hell, settings where the drama that is God’s story is played out. We are limited in our vision here on earth (it’s like looking at a reflection in a mirror, 1 Cor 13: 12 TNIV), but people who contemplate God and meditate on His Word see that there is so much more than what we perceive with our natural senses. We long to be in the place where earth and heaven meet, to cross that line and embrace God (‘Heaven and Earth’, Phil Wickham).
‘There is only one desire in the heart of Your redeemed
To step deeper in the place where earth and heaven meet.’ (‘Rushing Waters’, Aaron Shust)
‘Rushing Waters’, Aaron Shust
We see that heaven is ‘an invasion of the perfect future into present reality’ (Charlie Cleverly, ‘Epiphanies of the Ordinary’ P 207)
My understanding of God has definitely grown and matured over the past thirty years. But more than anything, I understand that what I have learned is barely a pin prick in the magnitude that is God. There is ‘so much more to be revealed’ (Scott, King, Dente).
Some people ask me how I can read the Bible every day and still find new truth in it. ‘Doesn’t it get boring, reading the same thing over and over again? Don’t you think it’s time to find something new?’ they ask. All I can say is that the Bible is a living word, just as Jesus is the Living Word, and we never reach the end of all there is to know. Paul prays for us to have wisdom and revelation so we may know God better (Eph 1:17 TNIV) and almost runs out of words himself when he is praying for us to know God’s love (Eph 3:17-20 TNIV, talking about knowing a ‘love that surpasses knowledge’ and a God who exceeds expectations!)
There is more. So much more. We can journey on in God for the rest of our lives and still spend all eternity discovering Him. We ain’t seen nothing yet!