Spring is nearly too much for me. The sheer thrill of warm sunshine, the wonder of growing things, the glory of flowering trees and the smell of warm earth; I can barely contain myself. I feel like a 5-year-old boy on my birthday about to open the presents with cake and ice cream waiting.  It’s too good and too much, an overload of the joy-capacitor. The weight of the glory strains what this mortal can handle.  

I can’t help but think that this experience is a small foretaste of the first day in heaven. 

Can you imagine what it will be like to step into that new world for the first time? The sights, sounds and smells of eternity, more fresh than the best Spring morning, will assault us with joy. Everything evil and stained by sin will be forever gone. All doubts, fears, and flaws put aside, never to return. Every heartache perfectly mended. Every earthly loss replaced with eternal gain. Imperfect faith replaced with impeccable sight. There will be Jesus, the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. There will be the saints who’ve gone on before in radiant, righteous glory. There will a forever stretching out before us – with a whole new world to explore and a whole new capacity to enjoy. If we were to see it now, in its truth, the weight of the glory would be too much.  

C.S. Lewis, in his classic “The Weight of Glory” muses that it is precisely the pain and sorrow of this world that creates the inner capacity for joy in the world to come. The troubles of this life are not only “light and momentary in comparison to the glory to be revealed” but somehow prepare us for it.  (2 Corinthians 4:17)  So be it. 

The only frustration I have on a perfect Spring morning is my inability to drink it all in.  I’m looking forward to that eternal morning when I find that I finally can.

Recommended Reading/Viewing:

• Kyle Borg has written an excellent article on a neglected topic: Why church polity matters.  I highly recommend When Presbyterian Rubber Meets the Road 
• The Gospel Coalition just released a wonderful video conversation with Molly Worthen, a world-class scholar/historian who recently became a Christian. If you enjoy stories of people coming to faith, you’ll love this!