Morning glories & glimpses of heaven

I have been reading snippets of the Little House on the Prairies series which I avidly read in the school library when I was (approximately) a 4th grader. Lately, I've pulled a few copies off my dusty bookshelves to share with my last homeschooler, David. I am far more interested in the books than he is! There are some interesting videos on you tube showing some of the historic sites where the Ingalls family actually lived. The most interesting one to me is the little dugout house on the banks of Plum Creek (in Minnesota). This morning, I was able to view Plum Creek on video & read a few pages of the book. I was actually surprised at the delight I found in Laura's detailed descriptions of morning glory vines growing around the dugout's door, birds, bumblebees, dragonflies, & water bugs skating across the creek. Sweet childhood memories came to my mind of long lazy summer days of playing along the creek on my grandparent's ranch in Montana. But there was more....it wasn't the delightful creation causing such joy in my mind, it was the VIVIDNESS of the memories & then the realization that this was all connected to God's glory somehow and it was so very REAL! Simply put, I believe it was a few moments of God revealing to me how VIVID & REAL heaven will be! It's interesting that in the end of Revelation, Chapter 22:1, we read of "a river..of life..clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God & the Lamb..." I will be honest here...sometimes these Biblical descriptions of heaven strike me as intellectual & sterile...like a hospital room perhaps. But I believe this morning, God was showing me how VIBRANT & DELIGHTFUL His heavenly creation will be. It will be as delightful as all His wonderful creation here, only new & different. And we won't have the unpleasant distractions of heat, cold, mosquitoes, thirst, hunger, pain, danger,etc. Just PURE DELIGHT like we have every now & then, for just a few moments, when we experience the wonder of creation....which of course we know the Bible tells us, reveals the nature of God.