Dreams Fulfilled

Dreams Fulfilled

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.

— Luke 6:20-23

For three things I thank God every day of my life: thanks that he has vouchsafed me knowledge of his works; deep thanks that he has set in my darkness the lamp of faith; deep, deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to—a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song.

— HELEN KELLER

Many people believe that this life is all there is. Their philosophy? “You only go around once, so grab what you can.”

But if you’re a child of God, you do not just “go around once” on Earth. You don’t get just one earthly life. You’ll get another one, far better and without end. You’ll inhabit the New Earth. As an undying person on an undying Earth, you’ll live with the God you cherish and the people you love—forever. Those who go to Hell are the ones who only go around once on this earth.

Think of all the unfulfilled dreams throughout human history. You’ve probably experienced some yourself, haven’t you? Looking back, do you wish you’d been able to go certain places and do certain things? Perhaps it was your commitment to help others that kept you from living out those dreams. Some people are embittered by this. Others are simply sad. Life seems to have broken its promises, and some people end up regretting years of unfulfilled dreams.

But God is not unjust, and he is not uncaring. And this is not our only chance at life on Earth. Luke 6:20-24 promises blessings in Heaven for the difficulties we face now. We’re told that when we face affliction for following Christ, we’re to “rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is [our] reward in heaven” (Luke 6:24).

Where will this Heaven be? On Earth. In Matthew 5:3-5, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Earth is the setting for God’s ultimate comfort, for his reversal of life’s injustices and tragedies. All the blessings of Heaven that Jesus promised us will be ours in the place where we’ll live forever— the New Earth.

That’s why I believe that the New Earth will be a place where missed opportunities will be regained. That’s also one reason why I believe that on the New Earth people who lost their spouses or children may be able to experience much of what they missed on the old Earth, and a great deal more. God promises not only to remove the heartbreaks of this earth but to make up for them. We will feast instead of going hungry; we’ll be rich instead of being poor, at peace rather than being persecuted. The New Earth will be a place where we will experience the fulfillment of deep longings and God-given dreams that died or were crushed in this life.

Are you living with the disappointment of unfulfilled dreams? In Heaven, you’ll find their fulfillment! Did poverty, poor health, war, or lack of time prevent you from pursuing an adventure or a dream? Did you never get to finish building that boat or painting that picture or writing that book—or reading that pile of books? Good news. The New Earth will be a second chance to do what you dreamed of, and far more besides.

In my novel Safely Home, I tell the story of Li Quan, a brilliant Chinese man whose dream was to write and teach in a university. Persecution for his faith in Christ robbed him of that opportunity. He worked instead as an assistant locksmith, in faithfulness and humility. He never saw his dreams fulfilled on Earth, but later in Heaven, as I imagined it, Christ gives Li Quan an assignment—to write and teach.

We don’t want to live as some sort of disembodied creatures in an alien world. We want to be sinless, healthy people living on Earth, but without the fighting, disease, disappointment, and death. We want to be the kind of people and live in the kind of world where our dreams, the deepest longings of our hearts, really do come true. That is exactly what God’s Word promises us.

We are hurt in countless ways when we fail to grasp this. We become discouraged, supposing that we’ll never know the joy of what we desire. People who are disabled may fear that they’ll never run in a meadow or know the pleasure of swimming. People who have never married—or who don’t have a good marriage—may fear that they’ll never know the joy that marriage can bring.

On the New Earth, in perfect bodies, we’ll run through meadows and swim in pristine waters. We’ll have the most exciting and fulfilling marriage there’s ever been, a marriage so glorious and complete that there will be no reason for another. Jesus himself will be our bridegroom.

The smartest person God ever created in this world may never have learned to read because he or she had no opportunity. The most musically gifted person may never have touched a musical instrument. The greatest athlete may never have competed in a game. The sport you’re best at may be a sport you’ve never tried, your favorite hobby one you’ve never thought of. Living under the Curse means we’ve missed many opportunities. But when the Curse is reversed, at the resurrection, we’ll regain opportunities and inherit many more besides.

Without an eternal perspective, without understanding the reality that the best is yet to come, we assume that people who die young, are handicapped, aren’t healthy, don’t get married, or don’t _______ [fill in the blank] will inevitably miss out on the best life has to offer. But the theology underlying those assumptions is fatally flawed. We’re presuming that our present Earth, bodies, cultures, relationships, and lives are superior to those of the New Earth.

What are we thinking?

Are there some dreams you have had that you think might be from God, but you’ve not seen them fulfilled? If they are not fulfilled in this life, do you think they may be, in some form, in the next life?

Father, preserve us from the illusion that this life, in these bodies, on the earth as it now is, constitutes the limits of our life opportunities. Help us to understand what it will mean to have new bodies and to live on the New Earth, where problems of insufficient health and wealth and time will never limit what we can do and where we can go and what we can see. Take off our blinders, Lord, and open our eyes to the world of new and greater opportunities that await us in Heaven. Thank you that our greatest dreams will one day be fulfilled on the New Earth.