If we can begin to imagine ourselves enjoying his praise because it’s from him, from his mouth, not mainly because it’s centered on us, then we will begin to ready ourselves for heaven. This is the inheritance of children. Do away with all notions of complexity and the tortuous need to nail it all to the wall. Beloved, we are God’s children. The glory that awaits is not mainly for those who can explain it all, having become so grown up they seem to forget the dust from which they were made. It is for those who will receive it like a child. Maturity in the Christian life is greater and greater childlikeness.

It is a dangerous thing to start thinking about our glory. It seems the moment our mortal minds begin to dwell on any sort of glory that involves ourselves, we are tripped up into idolatry, into a lust for praise and human acknowledgment. We begin admiring ourselves as we imagine how admirable we will, at last, be. But it is even more dangerous not to think on it. It is in the thinking on it, the examination of it, that we purify ourselves in the spirit the apostle John intended us to do. Can we fathom a glory prepared for us in which, upon fixing our minds on it, we do not turn into proud devils? I pray we can, for the Lord calls us to do it.

The Bible does more than hint that we will, in fact, be partakers in God’s glory. Jesus prays that the glory God has given him would be given to all of us, so that we may be one, just as he and the Father are one (John 17:22). Peter is so bold as to say it like this:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Pet. 1:3–4)

You and me? Called to his glory? Partaking of the divine nature? How can it be? I won’t pretend for a moment that I can explain it! I can’t and shan’t try. But I will state it as fact: you and I and all those who belong to him and are his children are indeed called to his glory, and we shall become partakers of his divine nature. He has guaranteed our glory by the strength of his will and his word (Rom. 8:29–30).

Here we must rely on John, the beloved disciple, to guide us into visions of our future glory: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2–3).

How do we ready ourselves for the glory that awaits? We put every shred of our hope in Jesus and the promise that we will be like him. Hoping in God is how we purify ourselves for glory—that time when the dim glass will be removed, the veil forever lifted, the door finally and fully opened, and the commendation, “Well done,” received into a pure heart that can bear to hear it without sinning.

Lewis says, “The promise of glory . . . becomes highly relevant to our deep desire. For glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things.”¹

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