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Unspeakable Joy

7 days ago

2 min read

The passage below is excerpted from A Theology of Desire: Meditations on intimacy, consummation, and the longing of God. You can watch or listen to a reading of this passage here.

Day 24: Unspeakable Joy

Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials, that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ—whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

(1 Peter 1:6-8 WEB)

Have you ever been so swept with wonder or joy that you’re left speechless? Perhaps it happened at the birth of a child, or standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, or looking at the sleeping face of your beloved. There are times when awe strikes so deep that words are too small to express what feels like an ocean of emotion.

I think this is what heaven will be like. We’ll become one with all creation, engulfed in joy so profound that words can’t suffice. Instead our beings will radiate with song. The tiny bits of energy which make up the universe will all vibrate with and from love, strumming and thrumming, wordless and matterless, alive with harmony.

You can experience it now, you know. Right now. Right where you sit, if it is quiet, and you can take a moment to enter in. It won’t be like what is to come, of course. But you can experience it. The veil between what is and is to come is thin, and torn. The heaven that will be already is.

You can experience it now, if you sit a moment, and breathe deep, and imagine the molecules of your body each pulsing with the beat of God’s heart, the rotation of the planets, and the expanding waves of the stars.

Our future with God will be filled with unspeakable joy.

It already is.

Suzanne DeWitt Hall (she/they) is the author of the Where True Love Is devotional series, the Living in Hope series of books supporting the loved ones of transgender people, The Language of Bodies (Woodhall Press, 2022), and the Rumplepimple adventures.