Excerpted from the book, Heaven, by Randy Alcorn — with some of my additional thoughts.

Day Three: Seeing God's face

Revelation 22:4 says, "God's servants will see His face."

John Donne wrote I shall rise from the dead to see the Son of God and be united to God Himself.

Our longing for Heaven is a longing for God. Being with God is the heart and soul of Heaven. Every other heavenly pleasure will derive from and be secondary to His holy presence. God's greatest gift to us is and always will be Himself.

Ancient theologians spoke of the beatific vision—a happy-making sight of God. To see God's face is the loftiest of all aspirations. When Moses asked to see God's glory, God said no one may see His face and live. Yet Revelation 22:4 tells us we will see God's face. It's only because we'll be fully righteous in Christ and completely sinless that we'll be able to see God and live.

"Seeing God's Face will be the joy by which all other joys are measured."

To see God will be our greatest joy, the joy by which all other joys will be measured. David said, "One thing I ask of the Lord… that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." Whenever we see Jesus in Heaven, we will see God. "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." —John 14:9.

My Words

I am looking forward to the day when I will see my Creator face to face! Christ has given me a hope beyond this life.

I once heard a minister pull out a 100-foot rope and color the first half inch red. He said: "This half-inch represents the 70–100 years you get to live on planet earth. The other ninety-nine feet, eleven and a half inches represent your first 10,000 years on the New Heaven and the New Earth. Don't get so focused on the red area that you forget about the rest!"

If you have questions or comments, you can email me here.

In His Name,

Roy