This Side of Heaven

As we approached the ski mountain for the homeschool ski group I run each week, we rounded a corner and in the distance, the mountains looked like they were shimmering in crystal trees. The entire sweep of mountains in front of us were sparkling with iridescent white forests. I had never seen anything like it. It was like opening my eyes to another world. Little snow was on the ground, and it didn't look like snow on the trees, though they were all encased in white. It looked like every single tree on every mountain had traded its bark and limb for diamonds.

"It only happens about four times a year," said the Group Sales manager, when I told her I had never seen the mountain so beautiful.
The freezing rain the night before had fallen and then instantly transformed the trees all over the county. I stood on top of the mountain and as far as I could see, the shimmery white trees glittered. As the day progressed, I noticed that from the top of the mountain I could see the glistening white slowly giving way to the brown and grey of a valley in winter rest. The brown slowly spread in the distance, and I knew that the ephemeral gleaming of the mountain would likely not last another day.

On the way home, I listened to a pastor on the radio who got all choked up as he described the miracle of heaven. He said it would be vastly different from any world we could possibly know, but not because of how beautiful Heaven would be. The magnificence of Heaven was that Jesus would be there, and we would see Him face to face. It was not the place...it was the Person. While on earth, we would see glimpses, in Heaven we would see Him for eternity. It would be a world entirely different from the temporal and often disappointing world we face today. And in a twinkling of an eye, we would be ushered in to that place, sparkling and new, but the decision to go there or not had to be made now. Choosing God only occurs this side of heaven. Don't wait. Tomorrow may be too late.

I think the ice has already vanished from the trees on the mountain.

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Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life....

John 14:6
5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."