I have dreams.

All kinds of dreams.

Wide awake dreams.

Daydreaming dreams.

Bigger than life dreams.

Sound asleep, deeply subconscious dreams.

But whether conscious or not, there is a constant thread that ties them all together.  A string to which they all seem somehow attached.

Worlds overlapping.  Past combining with present.  An intermingling of old and new.

A place where all the people I’ve been so blessed to meet and call friends from all over the world get a chance to meet each other.  Where introductions and stories are shared that connect the people most important to me.  Where the tales that have been told become illustrated with the real life faces of the characters.

I want the friends I know and love from “here” to have the privilege and honor of meeting the friends “there” and vice versa.

In my mind it always looks like a party, a celebration.  A rich entanglement of love and laughter.  A reunion of strangers who become friends.

The dream is far-fetched.  And I know that the only way even a glimpse of that could happen would be at my funeral, and I would miss the whole thing!

But that dream isn’t just a fantasy.  It’s a longing so deep in my soul I can taste it.  It’s the cry of every human heart that yearns for heaven.  A spiritual hunger for unity and community.  For uninterrupted, untarnished love between all of us.  All selfish ambition and narcissistic intentions annihilated.  Harmony the melody that everyone sings to.

It’s that guttural need for community and common bond.  The inborn desire, though misunderstood and often ignored, for Heaven itself.

Heaven.  Where God hosts the party of the “saints”, those who accepted His infinitely more than gracious invitation offered through Jesus.  It’s where we’re supposed to be.  Where we were born to one day be.  Feasting and music and uninhibited worship.  Sweet fellowship and conversation.  Lives connecting in ways we can’t even imagine this side of eternity.

All my friends meeting for the first time!  And me being there to see it.  All in the beautifully unfathomable presence of the One who made it possible.

The One who had the very same dream….:-)

Philippians 3:20 – But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

1 John 1:3 – That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

John 17:21 – That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

John 14:3 – When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.

2 Corinthians 5:5 –  Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.