You Don't Need a Bucket List
While in Belgrade, Serbia visiting missionaries, we figured we had time for one side-trip. After looking at the options, we picked Thessaloniki.
Thessaloniki was a great pick. It’s not only a bustling city with great food with a great waterfront, but it’s packed with history. We walked where Paul walked. At the archaeological museum, we saw unbelievable artifacts, not only from Greco-Roman times but from before.
After two days, we boarded the plane back to Belgrade via Zurich. After leaving Zurich, the plane turned around. The pilot announced we were headed to Geneva due to broken wing flaps. After a very calm emergency landing, we found ourselves in Geneva, at the airline’s expense, with a day to explore. I headed right to St. Pierre Cathedral, the home church of John Calvin, and the Reformation museum next door. It was one of my favorite days of the trip, and I didn’t even plan it.
And that’s not to mention the short, unplanned half-day we got to spend exploring Zurich on the same trip.
Nine days, four amazing European cities. We loved the history, the food, the culture. It’s easy to see why someone might need a bucket list with so much of the world yet to explore.
And I suppose it’s okay to keep a list of places you want to explore, dreams you want to pursue — but you don’t need to.
The Christian hope is not that we will leave earth, but that we will live as embodied creatures on a renewed earth. In his excellent book on heaven, Randy Alcorn quotes Edward Thurneysen:
The world into which we shall enter in the Parousia of Jesus Christ is . . . not another world; it is this world, this heaven, this earth; both, however, passed away and renewed. It is these forests, these fields, these cities, these streets, these people, that will be the scene of redemption.
Alcorn goes on to explain:
My understanding of Scripture suggests that the New Earth will include not only resurrected geographical locations but also resurrected cultures. The kings of the nations will bring their tribute, splendor, and glory into the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24, 26). There will be not one nation but many. This reference gives us biblical basis to suppose that the best culture, history, art, music, and the languages of the old Earth will be redeemed, purified, and carried over to the New Earth.
We don’t know exactly what the new earth will be like, but it seems that we’ll have just as much culture to explore then as we do now, except it will be even better.
You don’t really need a bucket list. Or maybe, you need a different kind of bucket list: one that stretches into eternity. You will have endless time to enjoy all of God’s renewed creation along with the best of every culture. There will be so much to explore. Who cares if you can’t fit it into our brief lives here?
An unexpected side-trip to Geneva was nice, but it’s nothing compared to what’s coming in eternity.
