Heavenly Joy

"Papa, what's this say?" said the littlest one, a non-reader, as he pointed out a picture in a book.

"Pachyrhinosaurus."

"Pachyrhinosaurus? Papa said pachyrhinosuarus!" he screamed as he ran off to show his brother, a beginning reader, whose known words at this point all have just one syllable.

That was a typical, although perhaps slightly more exuberant, interruption in my sermon preparation as I took care of the boys while Robin was gone late in the afternoon.  On the one hand I wasn't getting a whole lot done, but in these circumstances I try to keep my expectations low. On the other hand, I may have been getting a lesson into the nature of God.

One of the things I read today was the chapter on what it means for God to be eternal, from Mark Jones devotional book on the attributes of God, God Is.

As an eternal being, God is outside of time in the sense that humans would understand it. God has no beginning or ending in time. He is the creator of time. And he is capable of "seeing" all time at the same time.

As he draws out some practical applications of God's eternality, Jones writes:

"In heaven our joy can only increase, not decrease. Knowing that our joy will grow heightens the joy experienced at that moment. In this life, we can feel sadness in knowing  that a current joy will come to an end (e.g. my vacation of a lifetime ends tomorrow). Not so in heaven. There our joys will never end, which will therefore elicit even greater joy in each moment." (p. 56)

I have no idea what makes Papa saying the word "pachyrhinosuarus" bring such delight to a little boy, but for me it was a 3-D display of joy, the kind of joy that points to the greater joy of each moment in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May you live by faith in the moments of each day, looking forward to the heavenly joys to come. Amen.