I wonder if we even realize how beautiful heaven and the new earth would be. When my son was little, we used to take the bus to go to Balboa Park in San Diego just to see the beautiful rose garden there. There were beautiful roses everywhere with every color imaginable. I used to think that Heaven would be as beautiful as this park with all the gorgeous roses permeating the air with their delightful fragrance.

In 1 Corinthians 2:9, we're told that "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Many times when we read this text, we stop right here and think that we would never really know this side of Heaven the beauty that awaits us in Heaven. But notice what the next verse says: "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."

Through His Spirit, we can have a glimpse of the glory and beauty of our eternal home.

"We may have a vision of the future, the blessedness of heaven. In the Bible are revealed visions of the future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these are dear to His church. By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life co-operate with Christ, regarding it as an honor to suffer for His sake.

"Let your imagination picture the home of the saved, and remember that it will be more glorious than your brightest imagination can portray. Human language is inadequate to describe the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold it.

"Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and the living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home--that world of beauty which no artist can picture, no mortal tongue describe." --Maranatha, various selections.

"In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called 'a country.' Heb 11:14-16. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God's people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home...

"There, 'the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.' 'Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.' 'The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;...and a little child shall lead them.' 'They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,' saith the Lord. Isaiah 35:1; 55:13; 11:6,9.

"Pain cannot exist in the atmosphere of heaven. There will be no more tears, no funeral trains, no badges of mourning. 'There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying:...for the former things are passed away.' 'The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.' Rev. 21:4; Isa 33:24.

"The redeemed saints, who have loved God and kept His commandments here, will enter in through the gates of the city, and have right to the tree of life. Rev 22:14. They will eat freely of it as our first parents did before their fall. The leaves of that immortal widespread tree will be for the healing of the nations.

"Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will 'grow up' (Malachi 4:2) to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ's faithful ones will appear in 'the beauty of the Lord our God,' in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.

"There the Eden life will be lived, the life in garden and field. 'They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. they shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.' Isaiah 65:21, 22.

"There is the New Jerusalem, the metropolis of the glorified new earth, 'a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.' 'Her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.' 'The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.' Saith the Lord: 'I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people.'" --Maranatha, various selections.

"In the City of God 'there shall be no night.' None will need or desire repose. There will be no weariness in doing the will of God and offering praise to His name. We shall ever feel the freshness of the morning and shall ever be far from its close. 'And they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light.' The light of the sun will be superseded by a radiance which is not painfully dazzling, yet which immeasurably surpasses the brightness of our noontide. The glory of God and the Lamb floods the Holy City with unfading light. The redeemed walk in the sunless glory of perpetual day.

"There the redeemed ones greet those who directed them to the uplifted Saviour. They unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. All tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven, as the redeemed stand around the throne of God. All take up the joyful strain, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain' and hath redeemed us to God.'

"There will be music there, and song, such music and song as, save in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived. 'As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there.' 'They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord.' 'For the Lord shall comfort Zion:...He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.'

"What a song that will be when the ransomed of the Lord meet...!All heaven is filled with rich music, and with songs of praise to the Lamb. Saved, everlastingly saved, in the kingdom of glory! To have a life that measure with the life of God--that is the reward." --Maranatha, various selections.

"'And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.' The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.' 'The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.' 'In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people.'

"So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator's power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God's holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. 'From one sabbath together' the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up 'to worship before me, saith the Lord.' Isaiah 66:23." --Maranatha, various selections.

"To dwell forever in this home of the blest, to bear in soul, body, and spirit, not the dark traces of sin and the curse, but the perfect likeness of our Creator, and through ceaseless ages to advance in wisdom, in knowledge, and in holiness, ever exploring new fields of thought, ever finding new wonders and new glories, ever increasing in capacity to know and to enjoy and to love, and knowing that there is still beyond us joy and love and wisdom infinite--such is the object to which the Christian's hope is pointing.

"Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body."

"Restored to His presence, man will again, as at the beginning, be taught of God.

"We have not the slightest idea of what will then be opened before us. With Christ we shall walk beside the living waters. He will unfold to us the beauty and glory of nature. He will reveal what He is to us, and what we are to Him. Truth we cannot know now, because of finite limitations, we shall know hereafter.

"All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God's redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flight to worlds afar--worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages spent in contemplation of God's handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation--suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator's name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.

"And the years of eternity, as they roll, will continue to bring more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.

"And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Rev. 5:13." --Maranatha, various selections.

How Beautiful Heaven Must Be Midi