Katie was given a school assignment to write an essay entitled My Perfect World. She wrote: In my perfect world . . . ice cream is free, lollipops are everywhere, and the sky is blue all the time, with only a few clouds that have interesting shapes. Then her essay took a more serious turn. In that world, she continued, No one will come home to bad news. And no one will have to be the one to deliver it.
No one will come home to bad news. Isnt that wonderful? Those words point powerfully to the confident hope we have in Jesus. He is making everything newhealing and transforming our world (Revelation 21:5).
Paradise is the place of no moreno more evil, no more death, no more mourning, no more pain, no more tears (v. 4)! It is a place of perfect communion with God, who by His love has redeemed and claimed believers as His own (v. 3). What marvelous joy awaits us!
We can enjoy a foretaste of this perfect reality here and now. As we seek to fellowship with God daily, we experience the joy of His presence (Colossians 1:1213). And even as we struggle against sin, we experience, in part, the victory that is ours in Christ (2:1315), the One who fully conquered sin and death.
INSIGHT
What can we learn about the perfect world to comethe new heaven, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem? In Isaiah 65 we read (as in Revelation 21:4) about the absence of pain and sorrow: The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days. In this place we will not labor in vain, nor . . . bear children doomed to misfortune . . . . The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpents food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain (vv. 19-25). Isaiah 66:2223 declares that in the new heaven and the new earth all the redeemed will come and bow down before [the Lord].
Righteousness will dwell in this new heaven and new earth (2 Peter 3:13). In this delightfully perfect place, we will worship our holy God who dwells with us.