A glimpse beyond the gate

I don't know about you, but I would like to be able to take a glimpse beyond the gate that leads into heaven. What will it look like? Who is going to be in there? What will happen there? So many things that I think about when I think about heaven.

This coming Sunday at St. John Lutheran Church, Clarinda, IA, we will be remember All Saints Day. This is the time when we can remember and give thanks to God for those believers who have gone before us into heaven. They are seeing the very thing that I would like to see. They see what it is like beyond the gate. 

When will I get to see beyond the gate? It is for sure that I will see beyond the gate on that day when I breath my last here on earth and I enter into heaven itself. But at this time, when I long for a glimpse beyond the gate, I turn to Scripture itself.

In Revelation 7, I read "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" (Revelation 7:9-10)

There, beyond the gate, I see this great multitude, this number of people in white robes. Who are they? They are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation (John is told). These are the ones who have lived here on earth, held in the hand of God, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. These are the ones who have lived in faith and died in faith in Jesus. 

Why are they in white robes? They have been washed clean in the blood of Jesus Christ. They are there because of the grace and mercy of God rather than for anything that they have done. Washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, shed upon the cross. 

As I read this passage from Revelation, I realize that I am receiving that which I wanted, a glimpse beyond the gate. What a joy it is to have John give us this glimpse. Heaven is real. Believers in Christ are in heaven. They rejoice in the presence of the Triune God. 

Oh, to have that glimpse beyond the gate. Lord, You have given that to me. I thank You. Those of my family and friends who have died in the faith, are now part of that wonderful multitude before the throne. There, right there, is my mother. There is Pop. Yes, there are the ones I love.