The Lord has planned every one of our days. In the well known Psalm, David recalls,
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
-Psalm 139:16
One of those days was the day we were reconciled to God. He eagerly anticipated the day we would come to know Him. The Father probably thought in words similar to these, “Finally this is the day my child will come to know me. Finally she will know all I have done for her at the cross, and I will draw her into communion with myself.” Though he chose us to be his children before the foundation of the world, he waited for the day when he would finally experience fellowship with us the moment we were saved. For many of us, he waited years to actually enjoy a relationship with us. In one sense God possessed us before we took our first breath, but we did not actually experience the joy of being possessed by God until the Holy Spirit filled us and we became a new creation. Many experience sensational joy the moment of conversion, but even that is just a sliver compared to the joy of the Lord over that repentant sinner. He rejoices over his children.
There is a day even more joyfully anticipated by God than the day we were saved. It is the day when we will fully and finally be rid of sin and enjoy unhindered fellowship with him. We are walking in this joy and sorrow-filled limbo of being redeemed and yet not fully redeemed. The Lord plans good in our current suffering with Christ, but also awaits the day when we are glorified with Christ. As sin grieves us, it also grieves him. And as we look with hope towards the Last Day, so does he.
We are excited to see him face to face because we have never seen his face directly. But the Lord has seen our face. He sees all of us, every second of every day. He is eager for the day we are glorified because finally he will be able to see us see him. He will be overjoyed that we are overjoyed to see our Father. Heaven is not simply a place we go when we die that is absent of sin, pain, disease, and death. Though none of those things will be there. Heaven is the presence of Christ fully manifested to us. We see Him dimly here, and that eradicates some sin in us, but when we see the glory of God in all His radiance, majesty, love, grace, and power, sin will not be able to stay. The presence of Christ will completely eliminate sin and all of its corruption from us and every inch of the cosmos.
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