Archive for September 9th, 2008

This weekend I had the awesome opportunity to take the family out to a STL Cardinals game. Now when I say we went to the game that is actually not really accurate. We went to the game as part of the St. Louis Down’s Syndrome Group (a friend of the family has an awesome little boy that is a member of the group). We were part of an event called the “Buddy Walk” and “Walk in the park”. These events were to help raise awareness and money for the St. Louis Foundation. So we were able because of this foundation to actually go to the game and walk the field (on the warning track). This was a rush of emotions for me as my career ended after college due to arm trouble. It to be honest was in a way fulfilling my life long dream of walking out onto the field in a MLB park and looking at all of the fans and hearing the noise and (at one time) smelling the grass, pine tar, old leather, and other distinct baseball smells. This may still be hard for you to envision in your mind so I have included a picture that I took behind home plate at the bottom of this blog (I wish it could have been panaramic however my camera phone only does so much.)

So before I had actually stood behind the plate I could not even fathom what that sight was going to be like or make me feel like. And to be honest it was sensory overload, it was so much to take in that I could not even possibly get it all. And that makes me think about John when he received the vision from God as to what heaven is going to be like. Think about little ole’ me standing at home plate in Busch stadium with this massive stadium around me and it is bigger than anything that I could have imagined. Use that same concept to Heaven, it is so much more that we can ever imagine and fathom. Read a little snippet of scripture out of the 21st chapter of Revelation:

11having the glory of God Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.
18The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

After reading this you can only imagine how this New Jerusalem will be a reflection of God’s glory and the beauty that it contains that John could not even put into words. There is no way that I can put into words what it meant and how it felt to be standing on a MLB field. I can only imagine that John felt the same way, there aren’t enough words in this language to describe what Heaven will be like. But I do know that we as believers will be amazed and awed at the beauty of it. Scripture tells us that we will be totally engulfed with God’s glory and will do nothing but praise Him and worship HIm. I am always fascinated with Heaven because it is a place with no pain and no saddness and a place where all of the glory and honor and praise is given to the Almighty. It is a place where we will be freed from our sinful natures and our faults as humans. We will finally be complete through God’s grace and mercy to stand before God and worship Him. Just like I can not explain what it meant and felt like to stand behind home plate, I am sure John was not able to fully describe what he saw. And as my senior pastor says, “I cant wait to get to heaven, that doesnt mean though that I want to be on the bus going!” Basically that means this: As a christian our place is with our Father in Heaven. Our purpose for creation was to fellowship with and worship Him. However, we have things on this earth that He has tasked us with and purposes for us to fufill. So although we long to be with Him we must also long to be obediant to His callings for our lives. I urge you to go find what God has for you so that you can find true fulfillment for your life. And also, go stand behind home plate sometime it is awesome!

God Bless ~ Tyler