And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. Revelations 21
No matter what your circumstances might be today, there is always something to be thankful. Oh, it seems when we're wrestling with our emotions, perhaps over the loss of a loved one, or a career you had, or death of your spouse, it is hard to find something to be thankful about.
Our adult Sunday school class just concluded a video series by John Eldredge ' All Things New: Heaven, Earth, and the Restoration of Everything You Love' This book is about our future home, heaven, and the new earth. Between the Randy Alcorn 'Heaven' and this one, I began to have this vision of my future home- this is a good thing because the more we can visualize our future home as the place where Jesus went to prepare a place for us, the more joy our lives will become in the throes of our pain and suffering.
As we watched this series, my mind began reflecting on the awesomeness of God.
When God created man and woman, He made the brain to consists of 2 hemispheres. The left side is, of course, the cognitive brain while the right side is the creative side. When we're not grieving, the two hemispheres function like clockwork- it does the things God design our brain to do. But, I can tell you when we are suffering the loss of someone we've loved, our cognitive side doesn't function the way we would like it to. Quite literally, it shuts down.This is why we become so overwhelmed with our emotions when a loss occurs where we're not able to think straight or make the day-to-day decisions we're so used to making before our loss.
When our family entered the intensity of our grief, this was a period where each of us would have 'dreams' of our loved one running and jumping and laughing in the very place we will all be when it is our turn to make the transition to heaven. I remember my 12-year-old son running up to me to tell me the dream he had of Maria, or the dream my wife had seen her daughter or the dream I often had of Maria running through the meadow to climb trees and hang out with her heavenly friends in the tree house they made! I remember hearing the birds chirping and the animals grazing.
When God made the human brain, he knew exactly what he was doing! While we may not be able to read a book in the beginning of our grief, we are given the capacity to dream- to see in our wildest imagination all things new John Eldredge reveals in his book.
So, do not be afraid of your emotions and attempt to shut them down by working too much, numbing it with drugs or alcohol- for it is in those emotions that healing will happen.
Through Jesus Christ, we have the hope of this new heaven and the new earth, and it is through Jesus that healing from your pain of loss will come- using both the creative and cognitive side of your brain.
For everyone who desires to read this informative book by John Eldredge, here is the link-
https://www.amazon.com/All-Things-New-Restoration-Everything-ebook/dp/B01MXKBNMI
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