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A New Heaven

I love watching those TV shows where people are looking for a home on a Caribbean island.“We have to have 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, hardwood floors, outdoor pool, and located on the beach with mountains in the background. It must be close to the shops, nightclubs, and schools. And we want it all for one hundred thousand dollars.”
They want to walk through the water on the beach with their sandals in their hands at sunset, and go to sleep to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. Picking bananas and coconuts off your own tree. Watching the monkeys play and chatter in the tropical trees. Palm trees swaying in the breeze.
Reminds me of heaven. No, I haven’t been there before, but I’ve studied about heaven.
In Revelation 21, the angel tells John, “Come on, I’ve got something else to show you.” So the angel took John up on top of a mountain and showed John the great city of God, the holy Jerusalem, which was descending out of heaven from God. The city was laid out as a cube, and each side was 1400 miles long and 1400 miles tall. The wall surrounding it had twelve gates.
“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Rev 22:1-2 NKJV.
When we talk about heaven, we usually are thinking of going to heaven, somewhere beyond the sky, up above the moon, the sun, and the stars. Yes, if we pass away before Jesus’ return, we’ll see heaven but then we’ll all come back down to a new earth, and a new heaven.
That explains why Jesus told the disciples to pray this way:  “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matt. 6:9-13.
Heaven is coming to earth.
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Knitting Again

Someone asked me a while back to teach her to knit, so after opening her new instruction book and reading a little, I started to put the yarn on the needles, a procedure called “casting on.” If I had just started without reading how to start, I would have been fine, but then I couldn’t remember just how to do it.

I laughingly told the girl, “Let me teach you to crochet instead,” so I found my crochet hooks and got her started.

After she left, of course, the mystery of what I was doing wrong was too strong to resist so I found my giant needlecraft book, which teaches all forms of needle work. And there I found out that there are two methods of “casting on” and either one works.

To prove I could still knit, I started casting on stitches until I had enough for a simple scarf and started knitting the stockinette, which is one row of knit, then reverse it and one row of purl. I then bought new yarn and finished a scarf.

You see, I learned to knit in Home Ec class in high school, back in the “old days.” After I was married, I taught myself to crochet, and never did knit another thing.

Isn’t it funny that 50 years after learning to knit, I still remember how? Like the multiplication tables or memory verses or hymns. Can you still remember 8 X 8 = 64? Or “a noun is a person, place, or thing”? What about “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see”?

If I were to say, “For God so loved. . .” how would you complete that line? Does that bring back the verse John 3:16? Does it bring back the memory of Vacation Bible school with Kool-aid and cookies?

I have memorized many verses, just by reading them, meditating on them, mulling them over in my mind, phrase by phrase. As Psalms 119:11 says, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”

Start now to learn God’s Word. Start small. Start easy. But start.