The Word of God created all things in Heaven and on the earth. But things do not satisfy. Did the Word of God lack anything after He had created all things? Yes, He did. He lacked companionship. He lacked someone to love and serve, and someone to adore Him and to appreciate His love—someone like Himself. Angels cannot provide that contentment of being.

God became a Man. But not to be by Himself, for there is no joy and peace in that. There must be others of His kind. It is not good for a man to be alone.

The Word owned all things, having created them. But love and companionship cannot be created. Love must be purchased with one's self.

The Word of God had to become Christ—Son of God and Son of Man. He had to come to earth and be cruelly treated by people. He had to give His body and blood for the life of the world. He had to learn obedience to the Father as His only begotten Son. All of this was required if Christ were to gain the supreme inheritance, if He were to build an eternal home.

Then the loving Father, in His infinite wisdom, directed the prayer that inaugurated the Kingdom of God: "Ask of me, and I shall give the nations to you. I shall give to you the earth—all of it."

Why the earth? Because earth, not Heaven, is the home of all men, including the Son of Man. Heaven is not our home. This is why people resist death. They do not want to leave their loved ones or the earth.

The reason we want to go to Heaven is that we desire to escape the fears and pains of life on the earth. But in actual fact, the deepest cry of our heart is first for Christ and our loved ones, and then for the familiar earth, sea and sky where we were created.

How would you like to stand forever on a crystal sea in a place where there was no earth, no grass, no trees, no sky, no animals, no lakes, no children—nothing with which you are familiar? Would you take comfort in the angels and six-winged creatures?

God created man on the earth. The earth is man's home. We understand this in the depths of our soul. We are not angels, we are people.

If you possessed a glorified body and could appear and disappear at will, feeling neither fear nor pain, would you rather live and minister to people on the earth or would you rather sit in a mansion in Heaven?

Has God directed the Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, to request the nations and the ends of the earth for His inheritance? Is this the inheritance that Jesus desires with all of His heart?

Yes, indeed! And the desire burns with an intensity far beyond our imagination to picture or our senses to experience.

To be continued.