There’s a lot going on in this world right now. I just came across two verses. I don’t know how many times I’ve read these two verses as I go through the New Testament. I don’t know how many times I’ve included these verses in a sermon. But today, these two verses seem to have a little bit more meaning than they did even a month ago. Paul simply says: Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:1&2, NIV) I’ll admit that sometimes it’s easy to get so focused on the things that are happening down here that we lose sight of the great things that are ahead for us up there. Maybe you don’t do that, but I do.

Hope is a wonderful thing. Hope is what assures us of those great things that are ahead of us. Hope is what allows us to set our hearts on things above. Hope is what allows us to set our minds on heaven rather than getting lost in the things down here. God has done what needed to be done so that He could promise us so much more than a world currently ravaged by a virus. Take a moment with me set your mind on things above. John says: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1&2, NIV)

This is an incredible part of our hope and our future—we will be like Jesus! Our goal while we live this life is to be like Jesus. Honestly, I’m not there yet. I still have a long, long way to go, and I still have a lot of faith growing to do. But one day all of us will truly be like him. Right now our view of Christ is a little limited, but it won’t always be that way. Paul says: Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12, NIV) Mirrors back in the New Testament were nothing more than a polished metal, and when you looked into the mirror your image was always unclear, limited, and distorted. In my early days of faith my view of Jesus was pretty unclear and distorted, but as I have grown in my relationship with him my view has gotten clearer. It’s still somewhat unclear and dim, and yet the closer we get to him the more we become like him.

But there is a time that is coming when we will see him even clearer than we do right now. There is a day that is coming when we will be face-to-face with him. We will see him with perfect clarity, and we will be just like him. Do you long to be like him? Do you long for the day when he will appear? Does it move you to know that because of our hope there are great things ahead of us? I answer yes to all of these questions, and I trust that you do, too. This is our hope for the future. One day we will be just like Jesus. Today, I’m choosing to set my heart and my mind on the things above, and not on the things here. I hope you will, too!

-Brad