First 30 Bonus! Paradise

Started these devotions on a month with 31 days, so just in case you did the same, here’s your bonus: Paradise.  Jesus promises the thief on the cross next to Him: Paradise. When our life on earth comes to an end, we go to a place so beautiful that Jesus called it: Paradise. Personally, I picture a garden, much like Eden, beautiful with flowers and fruit, splashing waters and sunlight all the time. Mosquitos can’t bite, sun doesn’t burn, and zero calorie foods nourish our perfect spiritual bodies. All the human ills of sin and disease and sorrow are gone forever. We are safe, secure, forever blessed, comforted, and immortal, worshipping God in holiness, fellowshipping with the redeemed of the Lord forever. That’s Paradise. Isaiah prophesies about this in chapter 25:6-9:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich foods, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, or aged wine well refined. 

And on this mountain, He will swallow up the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

We started this study having a meal with Jesus, and we end it with a feast on God’s mountain. Sitting down with sisters and brothers from all over the world who have traveled the winding road of faith, the richest foods are provided by our God to feed us, death is swallowed up, and every tear is wiped from our faces. And we find in this our forever home, eternal rest and peace in our Lord Christ.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, thank You that when I die I will arrive in Paradise.  Because of Your grace I will live forever, I will celebrate in Your presence for eternity.  As I journey in Your light, let my steps follow Yours all the way to Heaven.  I ask in Your name, amen.