Recently, Dad took Della, my niece, to Disney World.

She had heard and read so many great things about it and was so excited.

Della counted down the days until the time came. When she finally got there, she was overwhelmed with such a fun atmosphere.

She called Mom on the phone and exclaimed, “There really is a magic kingdom!” It was better than she had ever imagined.

We can relate Della’s excitement to the excitement we are to have about going to God’s eternal kingdom (heaven).

We hear and read about how wonderful it is and what a wonderful existence we will have there, but that’s not how we always feel because we are so tied to this world.

We think of death as losing our life when we are actually gaining a new and better life.

If we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will be gladly welcomed into His heaven. We will be able to experience His goodness forever.

There is one major difference between the magic kingdom and heaven -- God’s eternal kingdom isn’t magic; it is very real.

Just like experiencing Disney World was better than Della ever imagined, the Bible tells us that heaven will be better than we could ever think or imagine.

However, we don’t have to wait until we die to experience God’s kingdom.

In Christ, we can experience it on earth, partially now and fully later.