A Promise. A Kingdom. A Long-Distance Relationship.

The greatest promise offered to us as followers of Jesus is to be where He is: “I go to prepare a place for you…that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3). Jesus taught us in teaching His disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven…” (Matt 6:9), and Paul says (Eph 2:6) that we have been seated with Christ in heavenly places.

We’re told that this world is not our home; that the life we’re living here is a journey to a place — to a person — we’ve neither visited nor seen yet feels and is far more familiar than our blood relatives and the houses with pencil markings on door frames indicating our height over the years.

What a day it will be when history’s most epic long-distance relationship finally comes to a close and we celebrate the eternal marriage of Christ and His bride, a covenant never to be broken, hearts never again to be exiled to different realms.

He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. Ps 18:16

He reached down from His realm — from His rightful place in heaven — into our realm, like a king laying his crown aside and rolling up his sleeves to get elbow-length deep in mud, feeling around for a diamond he lost that means more to him than the entirety of his kingdom.

What great love! that He would rejoice over one.

What great power! that He would scale eternity to not just find us but to bring us back royal.

What great generosity! that He would go to such lengths to get heaven ready for our homecoming.

We are no longer isolated from Him, worlds apart. We are given the promise of return — His to us and ours to Him. But until that day, we enjoy the active and oh so available promise of the Spirit, because in Christ, we’ve already received an invitation into that heavenly realm right now.

It’s so good. And it will only get better from here.