Exceeding Expectations

The last several times I went to the library, I got more than I expected. The first time I went to the library in recent memory, was The Night I Was a Paladin. I went to return a library book I found on the ground to its rightful owner or borrower, only to find that the book had been taken out of circulation, meaning that it belonged to whomever it was given, and there was no way of finding out who that was. I left a note near where I had found the book, but I got no responses. While I was at the library, I lent my bike lock to someone who didn't have one, and picked up a book called Quest by Aaron Becker. It turned out that Quest was the sequel to a book called Journey, so I went back to the library to pick that up. When I did, I also found a pair of movies I wanted to borrow. Yesterday, I went back to the library to return all of those, knowing that I'd find at the library more than I was expecting to find. As it happened, I found even more than that, borrowing a few books about the architecture of castles PLUS a book on how to draw horses.

I wonder if our heavenly reward will be like that. We strive to be righteous, expecting to receive a few blessings for our efforts, but God often gives us more than we feel we deserve. Of course, it's entirely possible to expect more from God than He's willing to give, especially if we're not being righteous or if what we expect to receive from God isn't actually what's best for us, but if we're even trying to be righteous, God will give us as many blessings as He can justify given to us, which is far more than we actually deserve and more than we usually expect.

I expect heaven to be a wonderful place. I expect that if I get there, I'll be happy there, but I also believe that it may be impossible for us to fully imagine how wonderful heaven really is. No matter how good our mental image of heaven is, heaven is actually even better. I can't say that for certain since I haven't seen heaven myself, that I remember, but I'm pretty sure heaven will exceed my expectations, just as God's mercy and patience already has. God has great things in store for the righteous, greater things than we could possibly imagine. It's worth it to be righteous. In fact, I expect that being righteous will prove to be far more worthwhile than we expect.