English Reformer and martyr John Bradford (1510–1555) wrote in a letter nearly five hundred years ago,
Let us long for our happy life, our laughing life, our joyful life; which we shall enjoy and then have in very deed, when we depart by death out of this dangerous state. . . . Therefore let us prepare ourselves accordingly, and, in misery and sorrow, be glad through hope. Now we are dispersed; but we shall be gathered together again there, where we shall never part, but [always] be together in joy eternal.
Bradford’s phrase “our laughing life” sings to me. Jesus said, “How happy are you who weep now, for you are going to laugh!” (Luke 6:21, Phillips).
There’s weeping in the present world, and there’s also laughter. But there’s a major difference. For believers, the first is temporary; the second is eternal. We’re told that God will make our weeping end (see Revelation 21:4). But our laughter will never end.
Henry Martyn (1781–1812) was a brilliant English scholar who went to India as a missionary. On August 10, 1805, he sailed from his homeland knowing he wouldn’t see it again. Martyn appreciated his home in England, but his longing for his home in Heaven was even greater. The sermon he preached on board that day was based on Hebrews 11:16:
“They were longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (NIV).
Martyn wrote this in his journal:
In prayer I soon launched sweetly into eternity, and found joy unspeakable in thinking of my future rest, and of the boundless love and joy I should ever taste in Christ’s beloved presence hereafter. I found no difficulty in stirring myself up to the contemplation of heaven; my soul through grace realized it, and I delighted to dwell by faith on those blissful scenes.
Henry Martyn became like those described in the text he preached on that day:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. . . . They were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:13-14, 16, NIV)
The “country of their own” spoken of here is a real country, with a real capital city, the New Jerusalem. It’s an actual place where these “foreigners and strangers on earth” will ultimately live in actual bodies. If the promises God made to them were promises regarding Earth (and they were), then the heavenly “country of their own” must ultimately include Earth. The fulfillment of these prophecies requires exactly what Scripture elsewhere promises—a resurrection of God’s people and God’s Earth.
What thrilled these expectant believers was not that God would rule in Heaven—He already did. They dreamed of the time that He would rule here on Earth, removing sin, death, suffering, poverty, and heartache. They trusted that the Messiah would come and bring Heaven with Him. The early Christians believed that God would answer what has since become the most frequently prayed prayer in human history: that once and forever, God’s will would be done on Earth as it is in Heaven (see Matthew 6:10).
Jonathan Edwards said of God’s people, “They are not only invited to go with Christ, and to dwell with him, but to inherit a kingdom with him; to sit down with him on his throne, and to receive the honour and happiness of a heavenly kingdom. . . . God made heaven on purpose for them, and fitted it for their delight and happiness.”
