Shouts In Heaven!

Oct 29, 2022

There’s a song we used to sing after Sunday night baptism services in the Baptist church many years ago.

The chorus went like this:

When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!

For some reason, as I would sing those words, Holy Spirit chills would spread all over my body. I’d have a vision of everyone I knew that went on before me all standing together, fully healthy and whole, worshiping our Father!

Imagine what it will be like when we get to be where, and who, we were designed to be all along!

Okay, so hold that thought! A few weeks ago, Ken and I went home to Indiana to spend a few days with our family. And hel-l-lo, of course, when you fly into Chicago and the Bears are playing Thursday night football, you’re “in!” Furthermore, when you’re in South Bend and Notre Dame is playing Stanford… You guessed it, another football game!

After spending a beautiful fall day in Chicago, we made our plans for the game. That’s when Kyle, our Impact Director, sent a random text and said, “Hey, you don’t happen to be in Chicago, do you?” It turns out that they were spending a day there also on their way to a family wedding in New York! Kyle’s husband, Tim, a lifelong Bears fan, had never stepped into the city of Chicago! YES, they were in Chicago, and Tim and his son, Taj, were going to the Bears game, too!

So, Tim, Ken and I made our plans to meet up! Kyle had already given us instructions to get all of the photo opps together for social media posting! We’d shared our section and seat numbers, so the rendezvous couldn’t fail! Around halftime, Tim texted and said they were headed out for a snack and did we want to meet up?

Ken and I rushed out, went to a spot we thought would be good and sent a text. Nothing could go wrong! Or could it? Well, that’s when it began, phone call after phone call and text after text.

Let’s just say we spent all of half time and well into the third quarter and we never did find each other. We were either a half level above or below or standing three feet in front of each other invisibly!

As Ken and I looked back on the evening and laughed about all that had gone wrong (including the Bears forgetting to show up to play… ), I couldn’t help but think how much fun it had been anyways. All of the people surrounding us were part of a family, you know, the Monsters of the Midway. We were “singing” (sort of) and shouting for a Bears victory! While in the craziness of it all, we were also trying to see friends we love from 2000 miles away, who by coincidence, ended up in the same place!

I wonder if that is what heaven will be like?

People from throughout the world, together as one (not opposing teams or political parties), all perfectly whole in the image of God worshiping Him together! Revelation 7:9 says:

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
- Revelation 7:9

We may not have found Tim and Taj in Chicago, but I’m not concerned about finding them once we all get to heaven! What a day of rejoicing it will be!