This week in Exeter is the first day of school.  I remember going back to school and on that first day there were always a lot of nerves but there was always a lot of excitement.  What will the teachers be like?  Will they give too much homework!?!  Who are the news kids in school?  Lots of questions but also a sort of reunion.  You'd come back and see your friends from last year and it always seemed that everyone was a bit different.  Some were taller, some were faster and stronger, some had grown up and matured more than others.  It was a lot of fun seeing your friends and growth they had made over the summer.
     This time of year reminds me of what God has in store for our future.  The book of Revelation is great at describing the return of Jesus and eternal life.  It's not all scary scenarios and judgment either, there is excitement in the air!  Revelation 7 paints the following picture, "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!...Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat."
     A time is coming when  Christ will return and just as on a first day of school, He will gather His people together to live forever!  Yes, that means friends who died in Christ, loved ones you miss who died in faith, people we have never met but believed, they will all be there.  And just as you go that first day of school and see the maturity and the growth your friends made over the summer we will see the growth God has given His people.  Our bodies will be resurrected and they will be perfect in every way.  The diseases will be gone, the memory loss will be turned around, the scars, the disabilities, depression, and illness will cease.  Everything will be different because God will have restored us to perfect life.
     This week or in the coming weeks as you send kids off to school or as you watch those buses and car loads of kids off to their first day I pray it will remind you of what's to come.  That first day in eternity when God will make all things new and all things perfect for those who believe in Christ.