Heaven's Perspective
Last Tuesday I went flying again. I was a lot more at ease this time (except for an incident in the air where I discovered my door was open and I had to open it and slam it shut), and because of this I was able to pay a little more attention (once my door was fully closed, that is). Because we were flying over roads that I had driven up and down thousands of times, it was fun to be able to have a different view on the geography of Central Florida.
The sky provides a unique view of the roads that I travel each day and also helped me figure out what I should have done when I’d got lost previously, as well as providing some interesting factoids. Did you know that the Magic Kingdom is just a REALLY SMALL part of all the land that Disney owns, and that in their property that they have made a lake that looks like Mickey’s head and ears?
There was one route in particular that I was struggling with as I tried to find my bearings. As we flew away from downtown Orlando, my finger followed the 408 west where I saw a couple of significant landmarks that helped me find where I was. I saw Good Homes Road, and the left turn onto it and the right turn off it that I have taken so many times. Next, I was fully expecting to see one of the largest cemeteries in town, Woodlawn Memorial Gardens. I have been there many times to preside over the graveside services of many different people. But as I looked down I didn’t see the rows of well-organized headstones or the towering mausoleums. All I saw was fields, with a few trees. For a moment I was a little confused. What had happened to the cemetery? It would have been impossible to move all the graves and I would have heard if they had moved their offices, and then it dawned on me…From three thousand feet, the signs of death are just too small to see. The headstones were too tiny to see and all the cemetery looked like was an open pasture. I suspect that the view I saw of this cemetery is the same as the view from heaven. You see, I don’t think heaven doesn’t see death as we do.The Apostle John says in Revelation 4:13, that “Blessed are they who die in the Lord”.
Why? Because Jesus said (John 11:26) that “Those who die in the Lord will never die”.The wonderful promise of Jesus is that if we put our faith and trust in him though our bodies will die, our soul and spirit will live within new bodies, eternally in heaven. That’s why walking though the veil of the shadow of death (Psalm 23) is just that, a shadow. It looks very real to us on earth, but from heaven’s vantage point it’s only a shadow.
The sky provides a unique view of the roads that I travel each day and also helped me figure out what I should have done when I’d got lost previously, as well as providing some interesting factoids. Did you know that the Magic Kingdom is just a REALLY SMALL part of all the land that Disney owns, and that in their property that they have made a lake that looks like Mickey’s head and ears?
There was one route in particular that I was struggling with as I tried to find my bearings. As we flew away from downtown Orlando, my finger followed the 408 west where I saw a couple of significant landmarks that helped me find where I was. I saw Good Homes Road, and the left turn onto it and the right turn off it that I have taken so many times. Next, I was fully expecting to see one of the largest cemeteries in town, Woodlawn Memorial Gardens. I have been there many times to preside over the graveside services of many different people. But as I looked down I didn’t see the rows of well-organized headstones or the towering mausoleums. All I saw was fields, with a few trees. For a moment I was a little confused. What had happened to the cemetery? It would have been impossible to move all the graves and I would have heard if they had moved their offices, and then it dawned on me…From three thousand feet, the signs of death are just too small to see. The headstones were too tiny to see and all the cemetery looked like was an open pasture. I suspect that the view I saw of this cemetery is the same as the view from heaven. You see, I don’t think heaven doesn’t see death as we do.The Apostle John says in Revelation 4:13, that “Blessed are they who die in the Lord”.
Why? Because Jesus said (John 11:26) that “Those who die in the Lord will never die”.The wonderful promise of Jesus is that if we put our faith and trust in him though our bodies will die, our soul and spirit will live within new bodies, eternally in heaven. That’s why walking though the veil of the shadow of death (Psalm 23) is just that, a shadow. It looks very real to us on earth, but from heaven’s vantage point it’s only a shadow.
Ironically, just five days later I traveled down the same road, helping a friend move, and drove right by the same cemetery. As I looked across the sprawling acres I saw exactly what I expected – hundreds and hundreds of neatly organized headstones. This perspective of death is what we see in this life. But from the vantage point of heaven, way more than 3,000 feet in the air, there will be “No more death” (Rev 21:4)… and thus no more headstones. Just spaces that look like open fields.In this world we must live within reality. Physical death is very real and we are not yet transformed enough to live from the vantage point of heaven. But, as we walk with Jesus, we can start to see the world from a higher perspective.
Fly high…
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