If Heaven Were...

“Then [Moses] said to Him, ‘If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.”

- Exodus 33:15

If heaven were

Filled with wonder:

Where the streets made of gold,

Gems built the bricks of mansions;

If heaven’s clouds were molded from crystals,

I was adorned with robes and jewels,

The seas carried colors

More than the clear blue,

Yet You were not there,

I would not find any reason to go.

If heaven were as grand

As the elders have told,

Only but a hint, for they too lost words…

A peace where enemies call each other friends,

Where tears no longer find strength to show.

If heaven was filled with shades

Of rainbows unnamed by Eve’s sons,

Yet Adam’s promised Redeemer

Was unable to reveal His face,

I would have no part in it.

For though heaven is

The home of eternal life,

Without the name of Christ,

It would already be death

To my ears.

But if heaven were

Lined streets of asphalt

Accompanied with potholes,

The mansions were shacks of wood,

My clothes made of rags,

The skies turned gray

In the middle of the day,

Yet Your presence was all around me,

I would be at rest.

If heaven included

The uncertain...

Heartache and pain,

Struggling to find my needs met

By this world’s substances;

Tears spilled

Pursued by a groaning heart in prayer.

Endurance the gift given to sustain,

And yet, unforsaken, You sat with me,

Here I would choose to stay.

For Heaven would be nothing

If You, God, were not there.

As I wait in between earth and what’s to be,

As temptations attempt to ravish my soul,

May I remember while in my anxiousness:

If there is but one definition

Of this place I am to call home,

It is that I am enveloped in the arms

Of the One who saved and embraced me.