It Does Get Better Than This

This past week I had an opportunity to do something that I had never done before. I rode a motorcycle on a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway. If you have never been on the Parkway, you’ve missed some of the most magnificent scenery on this earth. The cloud covered mountain tops, deep tree-covered valleys, and changing colors of the leaves afforded views which were almost breathtaking. As I rode along the winding road and caught glimpses of the grandeur of the Smoky Mountains, I said to myself, "It doesn’t get any better than this."

When God finished the creation process, he looked out over all that had been done and saw that everything was "very good" (Genesis 1:31). This "very good" creation was formed for you and I. We are told in Isaiah 45:18, "For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: "I am the LORD, and there is no other." All the beauty of nature and of life are part of God’s forming the earth to be inhabited. When we have the opportunity to enjoy a panoramic view of a piece God’s creation, it is not difficult to think that it does not get any better than this life. But, it does.

But this universe, even with all its beauty, will be destroyed one day (2 Peter 3:1-13) and material things will vanish. What will be left is Heaven and Hell. Hell is described in the Bible as a place of unquenchable fire (Matthew 13:12), outer darkness (Matthew 25:30), where the worm dieth not (Mark 9:46), and everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Heaven, on the other hand, is described as a place of no more death nor sorrow nor tears nor pain (Revelation 21:4). It is a place where there will be no darkness and where the saved will be in the presence of God for eternity (Revelation 22:1-5).

Sadly, not everyone will enter into heaven. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven . . ." (Matthew 7:21 NKJV). For those who will not enter heaven, the beauty in this life is the best they will ever know. But for those who do the will of our Father in heaven, (Matthew 7:21), the best is yet to come.

It did not take me but an instant to realize, as I looked out over those magnificent mountains, that no matter how beautiful portions of this life may be, "It does get better than this."

Are you preparing to enter into heaven? John wrote, "But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (Revelation 21:27 NKJV). Are you in the Lamb’s book of Life? If not, this life is the best that you will ever know. If you are, then the best is yet to come.