Day 5 – Heaven: Grace Finishes What Grace Began
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-5
Near the end of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's life, he spent considerable time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Billy Graham later recalled visiting the former president during his final illness. According to Graham's account, Eisenhower wanted reassurance that he was prepared to meet God. Think about that for a moment. Eisenhower had commanded Allied forces in Europe during World War II. He had served two terms as President of the United States. He had known kings, generals, presidents, and world leaders. Yet when death approached, none of those accomplishments could answer life's ultimate question. Eisenhower did not need another medal. He needed God’s grace. Graham later wrote that they spoke about salvation through Christ, prayed together, and that Eisenhower expressed peace about his relationship with God. Whatever positions we hold or accomplishments we achieve, all of us eventually stand in exactly the same place. We depend upon the mercy of God.
That brings us to the final promise in our Methodist understanding of salvation: glorification. The journey begins with Prevenient Grace, when God seeks us before we even recognize him. Grace brings us to New Birth. The Holy Spirit gives us Assurance that we belong to God. Sanctifying Grace continually transforms us toward being perfected in Love. And then, one day, God completes the work. Heaven is not the reward Christians receive for accumulating enough spiritual accomplishments. Heaven is grace fulfilled. Revelation gives us a breathtaking picture: God dwelling with God's people, death defeated, tears wiped away, mourning ended, and creation made new.
We sometimes speak about heaven primarily in terms of what will be there: streets of gold, loved ones, beauty, peace. But the greatest promise of heaven is not what will be there. It is who will be there. God. The Christian hope is ultimately the promise that nothing, not even suffering, aging, disease, or grief, can separate us from the love of God. That hope changes how we live now. We grieve, but not without hope; we face uncertainty, but not alone; we grow older, but we know God holds our future securely, and we serve faithfully because we know that the kingdom will someday be brought to completion by God.
At St. Andrew UMC, every baptism, Communion service, funeral, hymn, mission project, prayer, and act of Christian love points toward that ultimate promise. Grace begins in our lives; it accompanies us through the journey, and grace will lead us home. The God who began a good work in us will finish it. That is our hope.
Next Step: Take several quiet minutes today and imagine placing your entire future into God's hands. Pray: “Lord, thank you that my life began in your grace, is sustained by your grace, and will one day be completed by your grace.”
