Do you have family and friends you wish you could spend more time with? In Heaven you’ll have unlimited time. I’m eager to spend time again with my childhood friend Jerry, who died years ago. I anticipate meeting him in Heaven and picking up right where we left off.
A young woman visiting a missionary in Eastern Europe asked her, “Isn’t it hard being so far away from your [grown] children and missing important events in their lives?”
“Sure,” the missionary replied. “But in Heaven we’ll have all the time together we want. Right now there’s kingdom work that needs to be done.” This woman knows where her true home is—and that life there will be real life and that relationships among God’s people will resume in ways even better than what we’ve known here.
We may not be able to regain opportunities that we passed up due to unfaithfulness, but I believe we’ll regain whatever we passed up in order to faithfully serve God. Jesus said, “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you. . . . Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven” (Luke 6:21-23).
Perhaps in some way on the New Earth, the wives and children of the five missionaries killed by the Auca Indians will receive “comp time” with their loved ones. Consider the millions of Christians who’ve suffered and died in prison because of their faith, who were snatched away from their families, deprived of opportunities they craved with children and parents and spouses. Wouldn’t it be just like Jesus to reward them on the New Earth with opportunities to do the very things they missed—and far better things as well? That would fit well with the words of Jim Elliot, one of the five murdered missionaries: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Heaven offers more than comfort; it offers compensation. In the same way that the hungry will fill up in Heaven and those who weep will laugh, will those who suffer tragedy experience a compensating victory? Maybe on the New Earth my friend Greg will experience a greater but not dissimilar form of the joy he’d have had on this earth if he had not died as a teenager, impaled on a fence post. Maybe all my mom missed because she died before our daughters became adults will be hers in Heaven. She was a faithful servant of God and loved her granddaughters, who were very young when she died. I think God allowed my mom to watch them get married and become mothers, but one day she’ll do more than watch them. I think it’s likely that when they’re together on the New Earth, she’ll enjoy all the time she missed with them—and they with her. Maybe those who lost infants to miscarriage and disease and accidents will be given make-up time with them in the new world.
If a father dies before his daughter’s wedding and if he and she are Christians, then he’ll be there for his daughter’s ultimate wedding—to Christ. They will experience a far greater joy on the New Earth than the joy they could have experienced on the old Earth if he had lived longer. If he died before she became an accomplished pianist, he may hear her now from Heaven, but he’ll hear her play far better on the New Earth—and she’ll see him watching her, delight on his face. If he never lived to see his believing son play basketball, he’ll not only see him play on Earth but also play with him on the New Earth. And his children will enjoy the pleasure of seeing the look of utter approval on their father’s face . . . and their Father’s face.
In the movie Babette’s Feast, through the misfortunes of war Babette was forced to leave Paris, where she’d been an exquisite gourmet cook. She ended up as a maid for two women who led a small group of austere believers who frowned on such worldly things as good cooking. Babette comes into a large sum of money and spends it all on a single dinner party given for the elderly sisters she’s come to love. It’s a picture of God’s extravagant grace. Babette realizes she’ll never again be able to afford to give such a gift or prepare such a meal. Touched by Babette’s generosity, Phillipa—herself a gifted singer who had little opportunity to develop her gift—consoles her: “Babette, this is not the end; I’m certain it’s not. In Paradise you will be the great artist that God meant you to be! . . . Oh, how you will delight the angels!”
For those who know God, this sentiment is biblical. He’s a God who redeems lost opportunities—especially those lost through our faithful service. I believe that once the Curse is lifted and death is forever reversed, we may live out many of the “could have beens” taken from us on this old Earth.
I think it’s probable that two friends who always dreamed of going to a special place, but never managed to, will be able to go to that very place on the New Earth. And the man who couldn’t get out of his wheelchair to go biking with his son will never lack that opportunity again.
