When We All Get to Heaven....

...what a day of rejoicing that will be!"

That song goes on to speak about seeing Jesus -- the biggest, most important, and most wonderful reason that heaven will be a place of rejoicing. But there's another reason that has become increasingly real to me recently, and that is the hope of meeting and getting to know countless others in a way that is simply impossible in this life.

Last month, I went on a college tour that included visiting six different colleges in five different states and driving, along with my traveling companions Mr. H. and Ben, through a total of thirteen states. It was a very helpful trip that radically changed my opinions about a number of colleges and left me feeling very much more informed than I had been when I left. I enjoyed the enlightenment; I enjoyed the scenery; I enjoyed the amazingly delicious cafeteria food. But mostly I enjoyed the people.

I made a lot of new acquaintances on this trip: professors, admissions counselors, students, and occasionally other prospective students. In all probability, most of these will never be anything more than acquaintances, or even former acquaintances. In some cases I have absolutely no problem with this scenario. In some cases I welcome it. But I met quite a few people whose friendship I would love to have, and the majority of these people will be swept into the back of my memory along with everyone else.

I consider this to be a very sad thought. You see, I wish I could know everyone in the world who was worth knowing: everyone who could teach me something new, or who could learn something new with me; everyone with whom I could enjoy a good laugh, or a good story, or a good conversation. I wish I could know everyone who shares my interests, my passions, and my philosophy.

I wish I could know that professor at Hillsdale College whose passion, eloquence, and enthusiasm all combined to make him the perfect teacher. I would love to get to know those two students from Wheaton (one of whom was the oldest of five in a home-schooled family) with whom Ben and I discussed the origin of truth on the train into Chicago. I would really like to be friends with the admissions counselor at Bryan College, who emphasized that whatever college God leads me to will be the right one, and the visit coordinator at the same school, who gave her own testimony of how nothing is impossible with God. The list goes on. Those students at Patrick Henry, that professor at Geneva, that Admissions Counselor at Hillsdale -- I wish I could know them all.

The problem, of course, is that I can't.

I think one of the saddest things in life is the impossibility of knowing everyone who would be worth knowing. So many potential friendships must be sacrificed to mere earthly practicality. The friendships we do get to enjoy are wonderful, and I have no complaints about my own. But just as every friend is unique and irreplaceable, so no friendship is a perfect replacement for another, even if the seeds of the other friendship never turn into actual plants.

I have a theory: since everyone who accepts Jesus' sacrifice for his atonement will go to heaven, and since we will live there eternally, once we get there we will have all the time we want to get to know each other. No potential friendship will have to be set aside. Never again will we have to wonder what a relationship could have been. Not only will we be able to enjoy God completely, unimpeded by our fallen nature, but we will also be able to enjoy each other completely as well.

What a day of rejoicing that will be!