Hang Onto Your Forks!

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

 A study of Heaven by Jennifer Rothschild this summer prompted considerable contemplation. I am drawn to Solomon’s musings in Ecclesiastes, above. In the beginning God’s creation was beautiful—exquisite, beyond words in fact. Tosca Lee’s novel, Havah*, portrays the perfection of what God made. Oh that Eve had not chosen to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree!

And yet we have the promise of God’s timing. We simply cannot fathom the whole of His plan in our fallen state. The apostle Paul, who was caught up to paradise (2 Corinthians 12:4) concurred: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).     

Thankfully, for our benefit God did set eternity in our hearts: “a spiritual thirst…a restless yearning…a glimpse of the perfection of his creation. But it is only a glimpse.”** The mistake we make is to be content with the glimpse.

“Whatever else heaven is, it is more than we can possibly imagine. But although we don’t know what all awaits us there, we do know (Jesus) awaits us.”***

In a Gullah cemetery on Hilton Head Island many tombstones are marked with a dinner plate, ostensibly for those feasts in heaven. Or as Jennifer Rothschild’s father would illustrate: at the end of the main course of a family dinner, as the dishes are being cleared, the most welcome words to hear are, “save your fork…the best (dessert) is yet to come!”

Yes, the best is yet to come. In that time we will fathom (the beauty of) what God has done. 

I have my fork in hand! I think—hmm—my heavenly dessert will be an ethereal Pavlova, delicate, light, topped with whipped cream and fresh blueberries. Yum!

Nancy P

*Havah …the story of Eve by Tosca Lee, Navpress 2008

**NIV Life Application Bible, Tyndale House Publishers, 1988-1991

***Ken Gire, Moments with the Savior  

****Heaven by Jennifer Rothschild, Lifeway Press, 2025

All Scripture quotations are from the NIV Translation 1973, 1978, 1984, unless otherwise noted.