Will We Even Care?

I've been reading John Piper's Desiring God, which I've really enjoyed and it has brought me back to a place of desiring to delight in God for who He is and worship Him for who He is. These things might seem very obvious to people better than myself but I often fall into praising God for things He's done for me and not just praising Him because He deserves all glory, honor and praise for ever and ever. And there is no doubt in my mind that the most joyful, the most ecstatic experiences I've ever had were the times when the reality of who God is has penetrated a little deeper into my mind or heart and I have just worshipped God for being God.

So I was thinking about these realities and pondering heaven the other night. What I imagined was just seeing God's beauty and gaining an ever greater understanding of His beauty and greatness and the fact that this increasing understanding and our response of worship and praise could last for eternity because God is infinitely great and glorious. There can be no end to being amazed and mesmerized by God because He is infinitely wonderful and beautiful. We won't worship Him for a thousand, or a million or a trillion years and then get bored. That isn't possible with our God.

So in light of this I was thinking of how we often see heaven as this place where we'll get a nice mansion and be re-united with loved ones. But when I thought of the joy of having an eternal mansion or even the joy of being united with a loved-one it must be basically nothing compared to the joy of seeing and worshipping God in His tangible presence. Maybe I don't love people enough or something but I can't imagine getting to heaven and wanting to go see my mother, or father or brother first and then getting around to scheduling an appointment with Jesus later.

So I got kind of a mental picture of what it might be like to be in heaven and it relates to my recent surfing escapades. I'm still not very good at it but I seriously love surfing. I've never experienced anything so exhilarating as standing up on a surfboard on a wave, short of those rare moments I described earlier of really being able to worship God for who He is. There have been a couple of times when I've stood up on the same wave as one of my surfing-buddies. And when this has happened I've been able to give one of them this short glance with this big goofy smile on my face because it feels so wonderful to be on a wave. They have the same look because they love it just as much. So I was thinking of being in heaven, mesmerized by God's glory, worshipping him, and shooting a glance at a loved-one, and they look at me and they are just as overjoyed as I am to be worhipping our God and for a brief moment we share each-other's joy but it is all because of who God is and all focused on God.

So it sounds weird even to me, but I ask, will we even care who else is in heaven? Considering God's greatness and how we will enjoy Him forever, it seems hard to imagine how.

When we've been there ten-thousand years

Bright shining as the sun

We've no less days to sing God's praise

As when we first begun.