Notes of Faith October 23, 2025
Heavenly Anticipation
But if we wait expectantly for things we have never seen, then we hope with true perseverance and eager anticipation.
Romans 8:25
Artist Norman Rockwell created a painting called School’s Out for the 1959 Brown & Bigelow calendar. It showed children running and frolicking with joy as they left school for the summer. This was a popular theme for Rockwell as he released several paintings on this theme. It makes us wonder if he wasn’t reliving his own childhood days when the school year ended and summer fun began.
We should anticipate heaven the way children look forward to summer vacation. When God created us, He placed in our hearts a longing for Him and for eternity. He gave us a hunger for heaven. The reason we love breathtaking glimpses of heaven now is because they somehow remind us of how beautiful heaven will be. We want to look ahead with “true perseverance and eager anticipation.”
Ask God today to give you a focus for your eternal home and think of ways you can reach out to others who might need to know about the eternal home they can have in Christ. Let’s build up one another with heavenly anticipation.
When Christ calls me Home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school.
Adoniram Judson
Rom 8:12-17
12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. NIV
We suffer in a sinful world and are sinful ourselves. But…by His grace through the faith He gives us to believe in Jesus, we are transformed and will one day be made like Christ, sinless, healthy, and holy before God. I’m dancing in my head as I contemplate the joy of eternal life with my Savior and Lord! How about you?
Pastor Dale