Some years ago a Christian was visiting a friend of his who owned a beautiful estate. He happened to say something to his friend about paradise. The property owner smiled at the remark, and pointing out of the window toward his extensive estate said: "There is my paradise!”
The prospect was certainly charming. There were vineyards and meadows, fringed with blooming orchard trees stretching away in the sunlight, and sloping by a gentle declivity right down to the margin of a blue lake. On the farther shore a chain of beautiful hills rose into view. Higher still, in the far off azure, towered the sun-clad summits of the mountains. A glorious picture!
A few years later the Christian again visited his friend. The lake was dancing in the sunshine as smilingly as ever, and the trees wore the same emerald hue. But what about the owner of that vast and beautiful estate who but a short time before had gloried in it as his paradise?
Poor man! He sat in his room lonely, broken-hearted, brooding dismally over his sorrows. His beloved son had been drowned before his eyes in that lake. His daughter had married unhappily. An incurable disease had laid hold of him, and he, the once proud owner of his paradise, was slowly dying.
What a change in a few short years! Death had entered the paradise of the man who had boasted in his possessions. Sorrow had blighted the scene. And now bitterness was filling his soul. His joy was gone. That of which he once could proudly boast could now afford him no solace. He was still the possessor of houses and land, but this would not hold back that last dread enemy, Death. This would not give him back the lost son. This would not set the loved daughter free from an unhappy yoke. Is it any wonder that he dismally brooded as he sat in his arm-chair? He, though rich in houses and lands, had nothing to cheer his last days on earth and no hope for eternity.
Very different was his case from that of a poor old, man. He sat shaking with palsy before the fading embers of the fire. Being asked what he was doing, he said, "Waiting, sir.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For the coming of my Lord.”
“Why do you wait for His coming?”
“Because, sir, I expect great things then. He has promised that when. He shall appear, He will give a crown of righteousness to all that love Him. And I love Him, sir.”
Poor in this world's goods, he had learned that in this scene "all is vanity, and vexation of spirit." Here one finds nothing of lasting happiness apart from the blessed hope of Christ's coming.
“Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1 Peter 1:7, 87That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:7‑8).
Yes, poor in this world but rich in faith! He knew he was about to enter upon an inheritance that would never be taken from him, and that very soon he would be with his blessed Lord in an eternal paradise!
Dear reader, where is your paradise?
"Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is
the Christ
is born of God.”