with or without you

Lewis talks about riding with the King today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He says that riding horses in heaven (speaking metaphorically) would be valueless unless you're riding with the King. Now, I know where he's coming from. When I saw the movie What Dreams May Come, I was hugely disappointed with the way they portrayed heaven. When asked where God was, the guide says "we like to think He's around here somewhere." Well, heaven isn't heaven without God.

But. I think it's going too far to say that riding horses in heaven would be without value if we aren't riding with the King. That's going to the other extreme. I tell you, I think whatever we do in heaven is going to be pretty amazing.

And that brings me to the point tonight. I've been watching a series of videos by Bishop Robert Barron (which I highly recommend, and you can find on YouTube). And in one of them, he makes an amazing point about heaven. He says that when Revelation talks about heaven, it says that there isn't a Temple. Because we don't need one, of course, because God is everywhere in heaven. But he pointed out something I've never thought of before. He says that in Jerusalem, they had a temple because that's where people went for worship. But in heaven, everything we do will be worship. And, since the kingdom of heaven begins now, not when we die, we begin living that reality now. Everything we do is worship, whether it's work or play or eating or drinking... everything we do is in the presence of God, and is part of our worship.

Amazing to realize that.

God, thank You for being with us in everything.