CREATIVE QUESTION: WHAT WILL WE DO IN ETERNITY?

 

Simple question, simple answer: everyone knows we will sit on the clouds and play harps.

Wrong!

Donald Gray Barnhouse, in his commentary Illustrating the Gospel of John, suggests one possibility for the activity which may capture our attention in eternity. “If you are botanically minded you can go to God and say, ‘I love your flower thoughts. I’d like to classify a million varieties.’ And God will say, ‘Let there be a million varieties, and you can go to work on them.’”

We do know that in eternity we will “do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31). Jesus prayed, “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me” (John 17:24).

So, all activity in eternity will be for the glory of God. Explorers will explore the wonders of God’s new creation for His glory. Scientists will investigate newly created botany and zoology and chemistry to the praise of His glory. Musicians will compose, arrange, and perform majestic symphonies in worship of His glory, perhaps with totally unimaginable chord progressions and harmonies. Architects will study His creative designs and reproduce them in glorious structures to His glory. Authors will fashion long narrative poems, volumes of literature, and worshipful dramas exalting His glory. Artists will fill museums and galleries with magnificent paintings exhibiting His glory. Their tools will create in three dimensions or maybe even in four or five.

What will we do in eternity? Give glory to God.

Will we do it in exactly this way? I don’t know. But I do know that we will enjoy whatever we do because it will be done for His glory.