So, I'm strolling around Madrid after turning my visa application into the Russian Consulate. I stop in Starbucks for a tall Caramel Machiato and continue along the road to the Royal Palace. This is my first real experience of a famous European city. I approach the palace. It's large iron gates, courtyard the size of a football field, well trimmed gardens, and the gigantic building itself are crazy impressive. The word that came to mind was majestic. I actually picture myself driving home from a hard days work and walking through those front doors as if it was all mine. The thought made me laugh. As I rounded the other side, amazed that this was all one building a sobering and yet in a way comforting thought came to me. "This is all temporary. It will one day all be destroyed!" That was sobering. And then, "But, if heaven is made by God's hands, certainly it's majesty must far exceed what lies before me." To God that palace must seem like a card house, a log cabin of match sticks. I was reminded that I am living for what is REAL, for what is enduringly real. What we have now is real, but temporarily real. So temporary that one day it will seem like a vague dream, a fading memory. But, the glory of heaven will never fade. In fact, as we delve deeper into the nature of God, I would bet that heaven, our life there, will be ever increasingly majestic!
