“For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.” 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
God wants us with him. When we receive the gift of salvation, that means we get to spend forever with God. If we reject him, he respects our decision and allows us to live apart from him -
forever. That’s what hell is: eternal life apart from God. Will those in hell know they are in hell, or will things be much like they are now, minus the Christians? I don’t know. I’ve read conflicting things about that, and I haven’t had a chance to ask God face-to-face, but it’ll be on my list of questions when I get there. What I do know is that I WILL get to spend forever with God because
he wanted me to live forever with him,
and I said yes. I know that God is with me, every moment; my life is a great big conversation with God, only sometimes I’m not paying attention to what he’s telling me. But when I get to heaven, I know that it will feel like the best homecoming ever. I think another name for God ought to be the
Best Host Ever. You know when you go to someone’s house - whether it’s your best friend or your parents’ house or wherever - and you just feel that good decompressing whoosh, where all the stress goes away and you’re
HOME? That feeling, magnified by about a million times is what I think heaven will be like. God created the best home ever, and when we - his children - come home, he wants us to feel welcome and like we’re finally HOME…
because we will be. It’s easy to forget that this world is not our home, until tragedy strikes and we have no explanations for the
WHY’s that follow. The reason we have no answers is because we were created for another, better place. Things here are not as they should be. But being with God IS what we were created for. He is a loving parent cheering for us as we try to “fight the good fight” and “finish the race”, but he knows that someday we’ll be at home with him, right where we’re supposed to be.
