One of the big problems with anticipation is that what we anticipate very often fails to live up to expectations when it arrives. My family just went to see the third of the Paddington movies. As it goes, our anticipation was slightly muted purely because we had seen the reviews. And there was enough to like about the film in and of itself; it was, when all is said and done, alright. It just wasn’t as good as the first two. The first one, nobody really knew what to expect and so it was what it was. But what it was turned out to be quite good to the point that apparently every British actor under the sun wanted a cameo in it. The second, more surprisingly given the way sequels tend to go, was even better than the first in my opinion. But the third one, alright as it was, that is all it was. Alright.

Of course, right now our anticipation is largely taken up with Christmas. But it is hardly unheard of for us to so anticipate Christmas that, when it finally arrives, it is a bit of a let down. Whether that is because we expected a whole load of things that didn’t quite come off, our families were not holly or jolly but rather cantankerous and in the mood to take offence, the gifts received were all a bit meh or any number of other probably trifling and insignificant things in and of themselves that are annoyances nevertheless which all conspire to overshadow proceedings. The hype can easily fail to live up to billing.

Perhaps, we think, focusing our thoughts on the Lord Jesus will help us out here. He would never be a let down, would he? Except, of course, the 2000 years of anticipation God’s people had concerning the coming of the Christ was something of a let down for them. The Christ turned out to be some carpenter’s son from a yokel town who had a penchant for breaking traditions, offending the ruling class and seeming to be less bothered about the Romans than most patriotic Jews. To cap it all, he ended up on a Roman cross, portrayed as a criminal, in the final humiliation of his seemingly hapless ministry amongst waifs, strays and outcasts who all ultimately abandoned him. If we want to talk anticipation not quite matching reality, the first coming of Jesus tops most.

And yet, if we do focus our minds on the Lord Jesus, the best is yet to come. The cross wasn’t the end of him. Three days later he rose from the dead. That, in and of itself, does nothing to match the anticipation but that was only the start. That was the final proof that he is indeed the Christ, affirmed by God as his heavenly father who is well pleased with his Son and that his sacrifice on behalf of his people was entirely acceptable to him. Jesus then ascended to Heaven where – the book of Acts tells us – he continued his ministry and started to build as worldwide church made up of people from every tribe, tongue and nation. Another two thousands years on from Jesus – where we are today – and that apparently hapless ministry that seemed to end in failure and execution was just the very start of the great multitude who would come into the church as a result of his work.

But even that isn’t the best to come. If the cross and subsequent building of the church was the entrée, the pièce de résistance is that he is coming again. This time, not to a backwater in lowly humility but in such a way as every eye will see him and every ear will hear him as he enacts judgement on the world. He will take the righteous to glory and those who have rejected him will be sent to eternal punishment. The heavens and the earth will then be destroyed and God will make a New Creation; a new heavens and a new earth. There, God will dwell with his people for all eternity. Everything truly and genuinely good about the world we live in now will be there, turned up to 11, whilst the sin – and everything that sprung from it – that ruins our world will be no more. That is the bit we’re all anticipating. Having a glorious future on the new earth where sickness, disease, sin and death will be no more and we will dwell with Jesus, as his people, gloriously enjoying him and his good work forever.

Of course, anybody who ever tries to depict it immediately ruins it. There is nothing worse in any film or programme than when they represent Heaven or the New Creation because it always looks so disappointing. Which of course it would. Anything that basically looks like things are now, but maybe a bit better in some ways, is a bit rubbish. I think we sometimes fear that for all the anticipation, Heaven, the New Creation, the eternal state on the New Earth will be a bit rubbish and a massive let down because that is essentially all we can properly conceive. We either have the popular images in our mind – which truly do look like the biggest of let downs – or we just can’t conceive it and, therefore, either conceive something within our own imagining which is necessarily worse than how it will be or we simply can’t conceive it at all and therefore worry what it will be like because we can’t picture it. Perhaps, we worry, this too will be a massive let down.

But this is really one area we don’t need to fear, at least not if we are happy to take God at his Word. There are some bits of meat the Bible puts on the bones of our future. No sickness, death and disease, for example. Sin having been banished means the effects of sin will also be banished. There are some other things we glean from scripture too that push us to believe what is truly good is liable to continue in some form. But I think the Bible shies away from saying too much – God wisely doesn’t tell us everything we might like to know – because I suspect he knows what our imaginations are like. He knows we are likely to conceive of a future that is neither reality nor properly good. Rather than cause us to anticipate what we cannot properly conceive, he gives us some bare bones and effectively says: just trust me, it will be great!

And isn’t that the best sort of anticipation? The kind that we know will be great, we know we will enjoy, but we have no actual idea what it will be like. When my wife surprises me and she asks me to trust her that something will be good but she won’t tell me what it is, those surprises tend to be the very best because my imagination doesn’t run wild with expectations that are then let downs and because I trust her and know she understands what I will truly love and enjoy.

The Lord, I suspect, does something like this with our future. He knows our imaginations will only fail to conceive of matters properly or run rampant in such a way that we ruin the reality. Instead, he simply calls us to trust him and assures us we will absolutely enjoy the fullness of his plans when they come. Which is the kind of anticipation it is much easier to get behind because you know it won’t let you down. It can’t because we can’t conceive it and God himself assures us: I know you’ll love it, so trust me.