Just a thought to ponder… Is there anything in heaven that is man-made ?
Well it would seem at first blush that the Word says the answer is no, there isn’t…
Luke 12:18-20 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
And up until a few days ago I would have taken that statement at face value without considering a very important fact; a fact so important that our place in heaven could be said to be held by it.
Some fantastic new revelation that the whole of Christianity has missed until now? Not hardly! But it is revelation that hit me as I happened to tune into a movie while looking for the news. It wasn’t just any Hollywood production, and the moment it flashed on the screen it once again tore at the deepest part of my being. My first thought was instantly the same as every other time I have seen it… how could this scene ever slip from my mind, how could it not be the forefront of my daily thoughts? How could such a monumental picture ever take second place behind any other image. And yet I had to admit that I so often allow that exact thing to take place. And in that moment the Lord impressed upon me in the strongest visual image that there definitely is something man-made in heaven. As I once again watched the Passion of Christ I found myself agonizing at the brutality that Jesus suffered for me as stripe after stripe was meted out by His laughing creation; as they forced the crown of thorns upon His head; as they drove the nails into His wrists and His feet; as they thrust the spear thrust into His side.
Yes, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but the holes in Jesus’ wrists and feet and the scar in His side that were man-made will forever walk the pathways of heaven. They will always be there to remind us of the price He paid for our being able to stand in His presence. They will forever be a reminder of man’s rejection of His sacrifice, and they should be a constant reminder of the most important reason that we are still here on earth… an unbelieving world desperately needs to be told that we have seen those holes and that scar and know with all our being what they represent.
But sometimes I find myself like another Thomas, longing to see the marks for myself.
John 20:20, 27 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.“
And in those times the Lord always reminds me… (29) Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
One day we will all see those scars, but until then we see them by faith and in that faith we are blessed. The Word of God has revealed them to us from the first words of Genesis to the final words of Revelation. They are the man-made evidence that validates who Jesus truly is… our Lord who lived and died as a man, our risen Saviour, our God. And as it was for Thomas, so it is for us. The holes in His wrists and in His feet and the scar in His side that were made by man need to be a daily reminder for us of the place that He has given us in His kingdom, and a reminder of what that position requires of us. We should never need any motivation to share the incredible miracle and blessing of Jesus’ sacrifice for “all” mankind. But it is so easy to allow all that is in and of this world to cloud that image, that vision of the ultimate sacrifice.
It is up to us to never allow that image to slip from our minds. The world depends on it and Jesus is counting on it. He has entrusted us with the message of His Gospel, and that message includes the fact that something man-made is in heaven. The worst that man could do to Him will forever be an image for all to see, a witness to the horrendous price He paid… the price that was to have been ours to pay.
Yes, let us never for a moment forget that there is something man-made in heaven and what it represents… and thank God every day that there is!