I have a confession. Until very recently, I didn’t get overly excited when thinking about heaven. I know. That makes me a bad Christian. The thought of all those people riding white clouds and playing harps in white robes and never-ending church services didn’t appeal to me all that much.

All I kept thinking was how I couldn’t go to heaven until I had checked off several things off my bucket list like 1) create a bucket list, 2) get married (which implies dating), 3) eat at In-N-Out Burgers. I do have priorities.

But, as i have mentioned, I really started to get what heaven was all about when I read C. S. Lewis’ The Last Battle where Lewis describes the feeling of heaven as the first day after school ends for the summer and that first day of vacation. That I could relate to.

Eternal life is the same way. It’s not just living forever. That in and of itself would be no fun. Kinda like when I watch reality TV. Oh wait. That only seems like an eternity.

Eternal life is not just quantity of life but quality as well. It’s life in abundance and to the full. It’s the best kind of life you could possibly imagine.

1 John says that the essence of eternal life is knowing and being known by Jesus. Imagine running into Tom Hanks in a restaurant. This would be 10,000 times better. And it’s 10,000 times more likely to happen.

Eternal life is knowing that Jesus knows your name. Not only that. He names and defines you. It means He declares victory over your destiny. Eternal life is trusting that the future is as Jesus says it is and being so confident as to live that way now (I stole that one from my pastor).

So your assignment is 1) to read The Last Battle (and preferably the other six books in the Narnia series), 2) make your own bucket list, and 3) to chill about heaven and eternal life.