Beyond

I’m thinking today

about the beyond

The beyond of what you did, Jesus,

from what I read about You

For the Bible says that the world

wouldn’t be able to contain

all the books written

if they were filled

with everything you did

And I long to glimpse

into that beyond

To see all the lives touched

all the words said

all the love given

the mercy

the miracles

I just want to know more of You

And I long to dive

into all those books that weren’t written

The beyond is unknown

But I am blessed

With a God who continues

to make Yourself known to me

In countless ways

And You’ve given us all the written Words

that are needed

for now

But one day I’ll know in glory

about that beyond

– Susie Stewart

Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.

– John 21:25 (NLT)

By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.

– 2 Peter 1:3 (NLT)

Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.

– Matthew 5:17, 18 (MSG)

Photo by Susie Stewart

It is good to be present

here

now

But it is also good to focus beyond

there

future

For when we suffer

when we have trials

when today is heavy

Beyond

is a comfort

And Jesus will always

give us hope for the beyond

Beyond the suffering

Beyond the trial

Beyond this life

Jesus endured the cross

for the joy beyond

We endure the pain of sinful earth

for the joy of Heaven

Always hope

for the beyond

– Susie Stewart

And so now, we wait. We wait for our bridegroom. “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning” (Psalm 130:6). We lean on the windowsill of eternity, look to the sky, and whisper, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

Oh when will He come?

And every once in a while, when our heart grows weary of waiting, the Lord revives us with snatches of joy…It is a preview of the joy that will overtake us when, finally, the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

And it will all happen in the twinkling of an eye.

Before we realize it, if we are blessed to be living at the time of His return, we shall find ourselves in the embrace of our Savior at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. Heaven will have arrived. The Lord’s overcoming of the world will be a lifting of the curtain of our five senses, and we shall see the whole universe in plain sight. Life and immortality will no longer be dim thoughts, but vivid and strikingly real. At first, the shock of joy may burn with the brilliant newness of being glorified, but in the next instant we will be at peace and feel at home, as though it were always this way, that we were born for such a place. At that moment, earth will seem like a half-forgotten dream, pleasant enough, but only a dream.

– Joni Eareckson Tada

…For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

– Hebrews 12:1,2 (NIV)

So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

– 2 Corinthians 4:17,18 (MSG)

Photo by Susie Stewart