The First Time I Yearned for Heaven

How often have you longed for heaven? 

It's okay if you haven't. Personally, the idea of going to heaven was always attached to the "end of days on earth" or "the end times" and natural disasters. It could never be just a good thing. It always had a big doomsday, before there was ever any feeling of joy or excitement.  

I wanted to enjoy a few things here on earth first before the big "END OF THE EARTH" moment. I wanted to fall in love, have sex, or just get my driver's license first! whatever I was excited about, I had to pretend it didn't matter and claim to want to be in heaven. 

So, the first time I yearned for heaven...it was a big deal! for me anyways. And its road in on the coat tails of a big moment in my life. 

I was 24, in the hospital, and I had just given birth to my first baby. A perfect little girl. It was probably the meds, and the ups and downs of my hormones that played a role in my experience. But the moment I saw this perfect little human, a tiny person who had no idea what pain was or even what sadness felt like. I wanted nothing more than for Jesus to return in that moment. So that my little girl could be safely in His arms, to live in safety and perfection of eternity. 

The idea that she would grow up on this earth, even with all the things that seemed amazing to me to experience, it did not compare to the evil and sin I desperately wanted to save my daughter from. 

That was the moment I yearned for Heaven for the first time. 

And now, 9 months later, my hormones have calmed and I am not in fits of tears every night. But I can look back at that moment, remembering not to fear the "end of days" but knowing, on the other side of salvation, there is safety, joy and happiness that my daughter will one day experience forever.