One of the perpetuating myths of the Christian faith is that our great hope is that when we die we will go to heaven.

Read that again in case you are wondering if I made a mistake. I didn’t.

One of the perpetuating myths of the Xn faith is that our great hope is that when we die we will go to heaven.

Heaven is not our great hope. Heaven is not what we are all hanging out for.

You may well go to heaven when you die and that’s all good, but heaven is not the end game. If you’re anything like me then heaven is not even particularly good news – in fact in the way its often caricatured it even sounds kinda boring…

What if I told you that the end game of the Christian story is far more spectacular and beautiful and wonderful than heaven could ever be?

You see Easter – this most central celebration of the Christian faith – is not about a man dying and going to heaven. Easter is about a man – God’s son – dying for the sins of the world and then rising again to life in a new body as the start of God’s plan for renewing and restoring all of his creation – for making this earth good again – for our resurrection to life again in a new body on a new earth.

In Revelation 21 The Bible says that God is going to make all things new and our ultimate destination is not ‘heaven’ whatever that may mean to you – but it is to live with him on this earth in its restored form – without sin, sickness, poverty and injustice – God is going to press re-set on creation – us included.

That is our great hope. And that is good news.

That there is a God who loves us enough to find a way to restore our own brokenness and to give us a second crack at life on his earth.

May you know that God and his love over this Easter period.