The ReturnSample

The Weight of God’s Glory

When I catch the weight of God’s glory, there is never enough. I want to stay in it, or near it. I never want to leave. People don’t want to come back to earth after they go home to heaven, because the glory of God is the most home we could ever experience. It welcomes us—it’s heaven’s invitation to come and remain home. 

Heaven’s glory beams as God’s priceless welcome, one paid for with the most precious currency. The forever declarations pour out of our hearts as we face the truth of a love we can find nowhere else. Like romance times a thousand.

Romance is a shadow of worship. Exclusive. Intimate. Consuming. That’s why we chase after romance on earth. The shallow pool of earthly love whispers of what the deep glory ocean of worship is like with our Creator. 

Life in its deepest form floods my soul when I think of Him. It’s intoxicating. I can’t help but want to run back to Him in my mind every time this earthly life starts to pull me away. When I am distracted, the ache it brings tempts me to worship the shadows of heaven we have on earth.

Drink. Sex. Shallow laughs. Movies. Art. Television. Games. Books. Food. Family.

We are painfully aware that all these things leave us unsatisfied. They are like trying to capture the fragrance of a baking cake in our mouths; playing in the aroma, we enjoy it so much, breathing it in—wondering why we are still hungry. We know it’s really Him we’re exploring when we encounter any goodness or joy that He has put into this earthly life. Whenever our hearts burn or delight in the goodness of His earthly gifts, it’s truly Him alone we are longing for. 

When you touch heaven through worship, the ache for more is real. We have, as the Scriptures say, “tasted and seen that the Lord is good” (see Psalm 34:8). Our worship here, as we run around on earth, is just a shadow of what it is in heaven. There it is eternal.

Unless we are abiding in Christ as we work here, we are always longing to get back to him more fully. The tension pulls us always. We respond to His glory with a desire to do our earthly work well.

What ‘shadows’ in this life are the most distracting to your worship of God? What are some ways you can shift the focus back to God?