Hey, Beautiful You: Wanna pull up your chair, lean in today to a trusted friend who will show us that something we may fear, can actually be seen as a beautiful picture of stepping into our glorious unending? She is one of my favorite people — my friend, Jennifer Rothschild, (we’re actually going on tour together this fall! Are we coming to a church near you?) and Jennifer has a new devotional called Heaven for Today; 60 Devotions on How the Life to Come Changes Your Life Right Now. You’ll get a heart full of encouragement as you replace fear of the unknown with confidence of eternal splendor and endless joy. It is an absolute honor to welcome my sister, Jennifer, to the farm’s table today…
Guest Post by Jennifer Rothschild
You can’t begin to imagine what a profound pleasure it was to sit down to talk with Jennifer Rothschild in the belltower of our 1896 old stone church — this is genuinely a NOT-TO-BE-MISSED-CONVERSATION…. Don’t miss our powerful video convo below…
Heaven.
It is our glorious unending, when our faith becomes sight. It is our true country, our Father’s House (Phil 3:20; Jn 14:2). And it is the place of no more tears, sorrow, crying or pain (Rev 21:4).
The big problem with Heaven, though, is that we have to die to get there. And can we be honest? We may be made for eternity, but most of us really appreciate longevity. We fear death because it is often shrouded in the unknown.
We don’t know what it feels like to die. We don’t know what it is like to close our eyes to this earth and open them in Heaven. Perhaps we can use our imagination and compare it to something we do understand: a birth.
Imagine a little baby nestled safely in her mother’s womb. She grows there, safe and sheltered. That warm cocoon is her whole world.
Yet her world is so very tiny and dark. Like a fish in an aquarium doesn’t know water is wet, and has no idea he’s surrounded by invisible walls, that tiny baby doesn’t know she is confined, crowded, with no air, no light.
“We only fear dying to this current world because we really don’t know what it feels like to be fully alive in the future world of radiance, splendor, and endless joy.“
Her mother marvels at how every kick and elbow is met with boundaries. Each poke and nudge, another reminder that the baby’s tiny world can hardly contain her. Oh, the mother thinks, how this child must be ready and longing to come out into this world where it is bright and boundless.
But the baby? She is content.
She simply can’t conceive that her world is not the world.
She doesn’t know the dark is dark until it is her time to travel through the birth canal and be born into the world she was created to live in…the world of light, air, and boundlessness.
Could that be what it feels like to die?
Here on this side of eternity, we think this world is it.
We think we know shelter, freedom, and light. But in reality, we only see the shadows and hear the whispers of another world just beyond us. We only fear dying to this current world because we really don’t know what it feels like to be fully alive in the future world of radiance, splendor, and endless joy.
There will be a day when each of us travels through that “birth canal” and awakens to the true light, to boundless freedom and love, to live in the world we were created for and be with the One who created us for Himself.
Do you think of death this way? As a birth? Or do you shy away from talking or thinking about death due to fear and dread?
“…death is defeated. Try as it may to make its blow a fatal one, it cannot. Because of Christ, death may take a swing at us, and we may fall into the burial ground from the impact, but sure as the sun rises, we get back up.“
I suppose it is only right to feel negative emotions toward what the Bible considers a great “enemy” of life (1 Cor 15:26). Death indeed feels shattering, emptying, and totally counterintuitive, and well it should, for Eden had no tombstones.
But there is a difference in mourning death and fearing it. For death is defeated. Try as it may to make its blow a fatal one, it cannot. Because of Christ, death may take a swing at us, and we may fall into the burial ground from the impact, but sure as the sun rises, we get back up. We rise in resurrection from the ashes, like a hidden seedling sprouting out of the soil. Life pushes us out to the other side.
Poet George Herbert wrote on this very idea when he said, “Death used to be an executioner, but the Gospel makes him just a gardener.” Tim Keller expanded that thought, “Death used to be able to crush us, but now all death can do is plant us in God’s soil so we become something extraordinary.”
So it is with birth. Delivering a baby comes with anguish and sorrow as the mother feels the pain and the baby even cries as it loses a prior world. But, just as Jesus himself teaches, all that momentary sorrow and fear gives way as something extraordinary unfurls: “You will weep and mourn…You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you.”(Jn 16:20-22).
“Death is the comma that transitions us from the prologue to the forever stories of our lives, allowing us to step fully into our glorious unending where we finally trade faith for sight.”
Oh, my friend, death isn’t the period at the end of our stories.
Death is the comma that transitions us from the prologue to the forever stories of our lives, allowing us to step fully into our glorious unending where we finally trade faith for sight.
It is the birthing passage that propels us into the everlasting arms of the One who saved us and sealed us for eternity with Himself.
May we forever praise the God of Heaven—
the One who can take a death sentence and turn it into a birth.
Lord, May Your truth inform how I feel about death. Thank You for turning death on its head and making it a birth! I praise you for walking me through this life and into the next one, the forever one, with You. I trust You with all I don’t understand. Amen.
A Deeply Life-Giving Conversation: BellTower Stories
Ann Voskamp and Jennifer Rothschild discuss Jennifer’s new devotional, Heaven for Today. Come join us in BellTower Stories, up in the 1896 bell tower our little Village Table church, as “the bells are the voice of the church, with tones that touch and search.” (Longfellow)
Jennifer Rothschild’s life drastically changed at age fifteen when she lost her sight. Now, more than 45 years later, she boldly and compassionately teaches others to walk by faith, not sight. She has shared her inspiring messages at conferences like Extraordinary Women, Women of Joy and Women of Faith, and on media outlets like Dr. Phil, The TODAY Show, and Good Morning America. She hosts the Jennifer Rothschild Show podcast and has authored over 20 books and Bible studies. She’s also the featured teacher on The Hope of Heaven Tour. A boy mom who enjoys strong coffee and good books, she lives in Missouri with her husband, her very own Dr. Phil!
In her latest devotional, Heaven For Today, Jennifer offers 60 devotions to help you engage heaven now, offering you little slices of eternity and comfort right where you sit.
Order your copy today and as you sojourn with her through this daily devotional book, expect your eyes to be opened to the place of heaven, your faith to be opened to the promise of heaven, and your heart to be opened to the person of heaven – Jesus.
{Our humble thanks to B&H Publishing for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
Want to celebrate the hope of Heaven even more? Join me and Jennifer for the Hope of Heaven Tour coming this November. Experience a one-night event full of encouragement, laughter, and hope as we reflect on our forever home and forever hope we have in Jesus.
