A City Designed and Built by God

Before COVID-19, I sometimes traveled internationally. During a trip to Italy, I thought it would be fun to rent a Vespa, and I convinced my wife, Cathe, to come with me. At first it was kind of terrifying, but after a while, I was enjoying it.

Then, inexplicably, despite the rather unusual traffic rules, I managed to get a ticket. I found out later that it was because I had pulled into a bus lane, which simply looked like an open lane to me. But I was in the wrong lane. I was a foreigner who didn’t understand what was going on around me.

That is how we are in this world. There are things that don’t make sense to us, but we are longing for and looking forward to another world. That is the hope of Heaven.

Heaven is a real place waiting for us. This is the place Abraham was searching for, and it’s really the place we are all searching for and longing for.

Hebrews 11:8–9 tells us that when Abraham reached the land God had promised him, he lived there by faith, like a foreigner living in a tent. He was constantly looking forward to a city with eternal foundations designed and built by God.

That’s what Heaven is. It is a city designed and built by God. In the final two chapters of Revelation, John used the word “city” eleven times in specific reference to Heaven.

Like Abraham, you and I are foreigners. We’re passing through this world, and everything we’re going through is preparing us for Heaven. Remember, Jesus said to His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2 NKJV).

In the first chapters of the Bible, we see paradise lost when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. But the final two chapters of the Bible describe the paradise that God has created for us in Heaven.