We will see how God kept us, how dreadfully close we came to making shipwreck of our faith, but how, without fail, God intervened by his Word and Spirit and called us to faith and repentance again.

I imagine that in heaven there will be a sort of cosmic canvas or divine tapestry that will show the history of the universe at a single glance. I imagine we will be able to trace single threads as they weave their way through it, and we will understand individual brush strokes as they make their contribution to the whole.

I do not imagine it will be the first thing that we gaze upon—that will no doubt be His Face—and upon that glorious Face we will gaze, and gaze, and weep and wonder for countless ages.

On God’s great Cosmic Canvas we will see the creation of the world. We will see the moment when Light, full of life, and joy, and power first pierced the darkness. We will see the forming of Man, in the image of God. We will see how he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. We will see multitudes of eternal souls bursting into existence, flourishing like the grass, and passing away as they are replaced by another generation. We will see the moment when our own life began and how God breathed into us our very own spirit as he formed us in our mother’s womb; we will see how he brought us forth, and sustained us, and then called our spirits back to himself.

In light of the glory of God, in which we will then dwell, as within a great and endless ocean, we will see just how deep and dreadful the rebellion of Man against God was; we will see just how great and terrible our depravity and blindness and hostility were.

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