What’s a country that’s at the top of your bucket list?
View all responses
I’m Irish. The furthest I ever travelled was to Pompei in Italy back in 1984. I went around Europe on Interail, but when I came back through England, I decided that I probably liked it best.
I don’t travel very far in real life – though I like to go everywhere as an armchair traveller. It’s so easy to do that nowadays. Every day I can go on YouTube and find all sorts of videos on every country. I even find some 8K 3D videos that I can watch in virtual reality (VR) – though there aren’t many, and I don’t like it when there’s too much movement in VR movies – makes me dizzy 😀. But 2D videos can be quite immersive when watching them on my Oculus Quest.
And of course, there’s Google Earth, Street View and again, some great application in VR. And I enjoy Flight Simulator, train simulators, and EuroTruck Simulators. I often listen to local radio stations from the countries that I visit virtually while using such applications. Funny thing is, many of the songs are US or UK artists, wherever you go, and many of the stations are in English or have some elements of English.
Anyway, it’s 10 years since I’ve been in England, so perhaps I’d like to go back there again sometime soon. I find that as I get older (in my sixties now) wherever I revisit, I want it to be like to was 40 years ago or whatever 😀. The world doesn’t feel as exciting to me as it felt when I was young. Maybe that’s God’s way of pointing me towards the next life. People have all sorts of debates on the specifics of what the next life will be like. Some focus on heaven as something entirely different from anything in this world. Others see God changing or recreating the universe and making everything perfect. I like the idea of things being entirely different, but I’m happy to trust God. I’ll be happy with whatever He gives me.
What we have in the New Testament is some imagery that tells us that the future for those who believe in Jesus will be wonderful and not so wonderful for those who reject the Saviour. Many hymns use imagery too. I don’t feel that I have to take everything too literally, but I can still enjoy the imagery. For some things will be much better than anything in this life – for others things will be much worse than anything in this life. But I am so pleased that God has given us a way to ensure that we’ll be in heaven – “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Here are some heaven hymns:
Revelation 21:1-4
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
