What Heaven Looks Like
Over the past year I have listened a lot to Maverick City Music. They are a worship group that was nominated for several grammy awards last year. They won the grammy award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. Recently, Margaret Ellen and I were able to go and see them perform at the MidFlorida Amphitheater.
We were walking in kind of late and there was already a huge crowd there singing with one of the opening acts. It was pretty cool to see so many people together singing songs of praise to God together. Margaret Ellen leaned over to me as we got in and said, “You know this is what Heaven is going to look like.” I couldn’t help but think how true that statement was! We were with people that we had no idea who they were. We were all from different backgrounds, all different races, and all different economic standings. Yet, here we were singing and praising God together. That is what Heaven is going to look like, isn’t it?
Maverick City has a new album they made with Kirk Franklin that is being released at the end of this week. It is called Kingdom Book One. They released a few songs early and sang several of them at the concert. One they had released was titled “Kingdom.” It was a beautiful song but when I heard the story behind it at the concert it changed how I listened to the song from that point forward.
They explained that for this album they went to a prison down in South Florida and spent six days writing and recording songs with the inmates there. The song “Kingdom” has a couple of lines that are repeated throughout the song that say,
“If you ever wondered
What heaven looks like
It's looking like me and you
And if you ever questioned
What Heaven sounds like
Just let it fill the room”
I really liked these lines to begin with, but when I found out they wrote this with people who are in prison for life it meant so much more. To go back and watch the music video of these prisoners singing this song with smiles on their faces gives so much more meaning to the song. To see the lives of people who have made some mistakes in their lives changed by Jesus to a point they can sing a song like this and smile while doing so is pretty cool. It shows the power of Jesus to change lives. It shows the love that Jesus has for EVERYONE. It shows that even though we might have made some mistakes in our past, we can still have a place in the Kingdom. If you ever wondered what Heaven looks like, it’s looking like me and you.
Joel Harper
