Look Toward Heaven

Col 3:1-4

 

1. By the seasonal providence of God, now summer is gone and autumn is beginning. Because every season is a wonderful gift of God for us, we are looking forward a new special autumn of great beauty and wonder, a graceful season of fruitfulness, maturity, and thanksgiving.

2. Autumn is called “the season of high sky and fat horse” in Korea. In fact, Korean autumn is beautiful, and so is Michigan autumn, both with clear and high sky. I wish that all of you enjoy this beautiful season in this beautiful Michigan with praise and thanksgiving to God. Especially, I wish that all of you enjoy clear and high sky in this season.

3. Christians love sky and heaven. It is our homeland from where we came and to where we will return someday. It is where our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ wait for us, together with the saints and families of ours who moved from here to there. So, Jesus taught us to pray to “Our Father in heaven.” Jesus ascended to heaven and he promised to come back from the heaven. Our final destination and eternal residence is the heaven. Though we are living on the earth, we belong to heaven, as citizens of the heavenly kingdom.

4. Therefore, Paul exhorts us to “set your hearts on things above,”(1) “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”(2) Our mind, our heart, our sight, and our life should look above toward heaven. Modern people are so busy with the earthly things, forgetting to look toward heaven. I wish that you restore your sense of heaven in this heavenly season of high sky.

5. Sky and heaven are in the same direction and therefore used interchangeably. Jesus prayed to heaven, looking toward sky. It is the right direction to look and pursue. Animals look down, but human being stands to look upward. We know the earth, but heaven is eternal mystery for us. Modern astronomy says that there are more than 100 billion galaxies, each of which has 100 billion stars, in the distance of some trillion light-years. We do not know whether there is the end in this universe. This endless universe sky is simply beyond human understanding. Even if there is the end, humans would not able to find the end of the universe. God says that there is heaven beyond universe sky, and the heaven is the abode of God and our eternal home.

6. Therefore, let us fix our sight and heart on the heaven. When we look toward heaven, our hearts are purified and restored. Heavenward sight and life will purify you from your earthly desires: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”(5) And it will rid you of earthly sinful behaviors: “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.”(8) It will help you to “take off your old self with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”(9-10)

7. Moreover, your heavenward sight and life will strengthen your new self, such as “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience”(12), forbearing, forgiveness(13), love, unity(14), and peace(15). And, it will enrich your wisdom and purify your emotion: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”(16) Also, it will make your life in family and work happy and meaningful by purifying your heart from selfish desires and self-centered lifestyle. May God bless your new autumn and make you closer to heaven! Amen.