“The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain).

I forget that all the time. I keep thinking that this life should be better, but then I remember there’s more. Kinda like in the game shows where the announcer is all like “but wait, there’s more . . .”

In this case, the “more” is hereafter. This world isn’t all there is, nor is it a final destination. I’ve heard it put that our present reality is like a very clean bus station (or airport terminal) where you can wait until you leave for your actual home. No one in his or her right mind lives in a bus station or an airport terminal indefinitely.

Also, it’s a beautiful but a broken world. At some point, it needs some major renovations. The Bible promises that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth. All that went wrong when Adam and Eve disobeyed will be gone and only the original design will be left.

I don’t know what that will look like. Will we still work? Will we worship all day and all night? I’m pretty sure the idea of sitting around on clouds playing harps is not in Revelation. But I do know that whatever it is is not here and now.

That’s the hope for those who have gone on before us. We will see them again. All that we’ve lost will somehow be restored beyond our wildest expectations. We will finally have all those undefined and unmet yearnings fulfilled because we will fully and forever be home.