I sit at the desk, surveying the classroom full of students doing everything but their assignment for the day. Phones, friends and food are apparently too distracting for teenagers to be able to concentrate. But today my concentration isn’t that much better than that of the students. My mind wanders to a pleasant place, a place of warm weather, wonderful vistas of the ocean and fabulous food everywhere you go, including key lime pie on a stick dipped in chocolate. Who knew such a perfect dessert even existed? But it does in paradise. Unfortunately, I am no longer in paradise. I have recently reentered reality.

Today in body, I am in a high school classroom. In my mind though, I am paddle boarding on an ocean bay, hanging out on a sandbar while time stands still as peaceful hues of blue sky and blue water merge all around me. Seems like only yesterday I was biking around paradise, taking in all the sights and sounds that paradise has to offer. (probably because it was only yesterday, give or take a day or two) Since then, I have left paradise, but paradise has not left me. I carry it with me in memory. As long as I can remember it, paradise is not lost.

Now I know the title of this post is also the title of Milton’s epic poem published in 1667, but it seems the most appropriate title I could think of for today’s post. It’s fitting since I have just recently returned from paradise and find myself once again immersed in the mundane of day to day life that is lived in a place other than paradise. To be more accurate though, I didn’t actually lose paradise, I left paradise behind. I know right where paradise resides. So I guess paradise isn’t lost, it is still right where it has always been, it’s just that I am no longer in it. I wonder if paradise notices my absence? Does it miss me? I miss it.

I hope to return to this earthly paradise someday. And in a happy spoiler alert, brought to me courtesy of truth, I find that an actual eternal paradise is awaiting my arrival and that Someone in paradise is already preparing a place for me there. Jesus said,

“In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:2-3)

This is a sure thing, a reservation in paradise that will not be lost or cancelled. Peter says this –

“In His (Jesus’s) great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” (1 Peter 1:3-6)

Paradise is not lost – I have a reservation, actually an inheritance there, that is being kept secure in heaven where it will not “perish, spoil or fade” – it is waiting for me. I can rejoice now even though I may be suffering at this present time. Paradise is not lost – it is waiting for me. My place in it is waiting for me. What will it be like? 1 Corinthians 2:9 tells me,

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

but Revelation does give me a sneak peak saying –

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. . . . To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” (Revelation 21:3-7)

A further description of paradise continues saying –

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. . . . On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. . . . Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:23-27)

take heart! dear ones – paradise is not lost. Paradise stands ready to receive us when we finish the race we are running. When we run with perseverance this race marked out for us – we will find paradise awaiting our arrival. It was never lost, after all.

sincerely, Grace Day