Scripture: Revelation 21:9-27 (NIV)

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

The mention of a reward certainly pricked up the ears of Han Solo, but he was still a little cautious. After all, it could have been a buy one, get one free coupon at the local Jawa Juice. If he was going to put himself on the line for a princess he’d never heard of, it was going to have to be something substantial. At the least, he needed to make up the 15,000 he was supposed to receive when he reached Alderaan. With the planet so much rubble outside, it didn’t look like that money was going to wind up in his pocket.

So when Luke Skywalker told him, “Well more wealth than you can imagine!” he pretended to be hesitant (“I don’t know, I can imagine quite a bit.”) but the deal was done. After all, as Han said, he could imagine a lot. There’s no doubt he was thinking of an amount large enough to pay off Jabba the Hutt, make some much-needed repairs to the Millennium Falcon, and still have plenty left over for some luxuries. It’s almost surprising we can’t hear him mentally counting the credits he could get by pulling off this risky maneuver.

We think of riches in the same way, don’t we? Riches can look differently depending on what our current situation is. When we are kids, dreaming of riches might look like being an adult and having money to get what you want. (These dreams are usually dashed quickly upon reaching adulthood!) A person working two part-time jobs just to get by might feel like a person with a full-time job and fringe benefits is living in luxury. Someone who is making a solid living may dream about hitting the lottery.

As Christians, we believe that riches are coming for us. Not necessarily here on this earth, though there are some preachers who would erroneously tie your behavior here to your bank account, but in the life to come. Not only did Christ promise us wonderful living space in His Father’s house, we get a visual glimpse of the glory of that coming kingdom at the end of the Bible.

John paints us a picture of the new heaven and the new earth. The basic building materials are things that are highly prized today, such as gold and precious gems. Pearls make up the gates. These items will be in such abundance that you can see them everywhere. The riches of heaven are truly beyond our imagination. We can’t even begin to scratch the surface of what God has in store for us when we join with Him eternally.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t riches on this earth, of course. God blesses us with so much, whether it is a place to live or unexpected help in times of need. Family and friends are riches that have no price tag. The life God gives us provides riches more than we can imagine, both here and to come!