You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. - Isaiah 62:4. (Hephzibah means literally, my delight is in her. Beulah means literally, married.)

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’ - Revelation 21:1-3.

Looking out my back door I can see calves grazing on the green wheat pasture. It is a peaceful setting, an idyllic setting. The calves have no worries about their future because their immediate need of food is cared for by the expanse of wheat available for them to eat. However, the calves cannot see that at some point in their future they will be loaded up and taken to be sold. The calves will become neatly packaged meat in some grocery store.

The lives of many people resemble that of cattle. Many become absorbed in their day-to-day activities of work and play. They have little desire to hear about the future because the present is fulfilling. But we are not cattle. We have the capacity of mind to look forward in time with imagination to our ultimate end. What is it that you see when you look toward that time? Do you know what is waiting for you there? Do you look forward with anticipation or dread?

I can remember one of the first times I looked forward in time to the end of my life. It was a frightening experience because in my mind it was dark and unknown. I didn’t know what would happen when I reached the end of my physical life. Five years later after I received Christ as my Savior I could then look ahead to the future and the darkness was gone because I knew what lie ahead. What lay ahead would be Heaven - living in a perfect place where the Lord God will be the very light. The marriage will have been completed in New Jerusalem and we will be living in Beulah Land.

The Bible says at the end of Revelation 21, “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (v. 27).” Is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?