“I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find ’till after death, I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.” – C. S. Lewis
To anticipate Heaven we need to understand the meaning of home. When I go to the zoo I have the troubling feeling that the animals do not belong in the zoo. This is not their home. Have you ever been on a trip where you got sick or the adventure was less that you anticipated? Where did you want to be more than anywhere? It is likely that you imagined your comfy bed, your favorite coffee and your best chair on your deck. Maybe you thought of your favorite people laughing and being together. Regardless of your personal home environment, it is likely a refuge. For me, it is where I feed my family home cooked meals. Home is where we gather to talk, laugh and share our lives. Home is where a friend has come to find a safe place to cry. Home is where I read some of the best books. Home is where my husband and I read the scripture together, drink our morning coffee and dream new dreams together. Home is gathering around the piano or guitar to sing old favorites and new songs we just found. Home is a kitchen counter full of a dozen warm homemade loaves of bread. Home is cuddling up with my puppy and my husband as the day ends. Perhaps I am romanticizing home, but you understand what I am trying to help you visualize.
For those who choose God as their Father, it will be like coming home. Perhaps you have felt like you do not fit here on earth. As a Christ follower, we were made for our home in Heaven. A profession of faith is not a guarantee of the possession of faith.
When we want to go to see our grandchildren, we do not just load up the car and start driving. Before we start driving, we look at the map and plan our route with the help of our digital maps. Instead of driving in the wrong direction and discovering we spent hours driving to the wrong destination, we plan. The goal of getting to Heaven is worthy of greater advanced planning than we would give to any other journey. Many people assume that most people are Heaven-bound. The Bible says otherwise. We owe it to you to share God’s route to heaven. Being a Christ follower is an intentional decision that sets you on an intentional path.
Let’s think about five truths the Scripture tells us about Heaven. The Bible is full of information about Heaven which is nicely communicated in Randy Alcorn’s Heaven. Much of the material shared here is from his book!! Buy the book for even more exciting truths about Heaven.
“The happiness of Heaven is not like the steady, placid state of a mountain lake where barely a ripple disturbs the tranquility of its water. Heaven is more akin to the surging, swelling waves of the Mississippi at flood stage.” – Sam Storms
First, laughter will be in heaven.
Ask yourself, “Where did humor originate?” Not with people, angels or Satan. God created all good things. Obviously, he created humor. If God did not have a sense of humor, then we are his image-bearers would not either. So often when reviewing my sense of doubt or fear or ignorance, I am certain that God must have created a sense of humor. Sometimes we can look at God’s creation and smile knowing that God has a sense of humor.
When laughter is prompted by what is appropriate, God always takes pleasure in it. I think that Christ will laugh with us and his wit and fun-loving nature will be our greatest source of endless laughter.
Am I just speculating? No, Scripture verifies the idea of laughter in heaven. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” Luke 6:21
Will we be satisfied in Heaven? “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.” Luke 6:23
The fact that we could wonder whether there’s laughter in Heaven shows how skewed our perspective is. C.S. Lewis said, “But in this world everything is upside down, That which, if prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likeliest that which in a better country is the End of ends. Joy is the serious business of Heaven.”
The only laughter that won’t have a place in Heaven is the sort that comedians often engage in – laughter that mocks people, makes light of human sufferings or glorifies immorality. Jesus comments in Luke 6:25 by addressing both Heaven and Hell saying, “Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.” For those who have exploited and ignored the needy, who laugh and ridicule the unfortunate and who despise God’s standards of purity will have eternity to mourn and weep.
We need a Biblical theology of humor that prepares us for an eternity of celebration and spontaneous laughter. C.S. Lewis depicts the laughter in Heaven when his characters attend the great reunion on the New Narnia: “And there was greeting and kissing and handshaking and old jokes revived…”
“When Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school.” – Adoniram Judson
Secondly, in heaven we will have individual identities. You will be you in Heaven. Who else would you be? If Tim is no longer Tim when Tim goes to Heaven, then, in fact, Tim did not go to Heaven. If when I arrive in Heaven I am no longer the same person with the same identity, history and memory, then I did not go to Heaven.
The resurrected Jesus did not become someone else; he remained who he was before his resurrection: “It is I myself!” (Luke 24:39) In John’s gospel, Jesus deals with Mary, Thomas and Peter in very personal ways, drawing on his previous knowledge of them (John 20:10-18, 24-29, 21:15-22). His knowledge and relationships from his pre-resurrected state carried over. WhenThomas cried out, “My Lord and my God,” knew that he was speaking to the same Jesus he’d followed. When John said, “It is the Lord,” he meant, “It’s really him – the Jesus we have known” (John 21: 4-7).
Think of this. If we were not ourselves in the afterlife, then we could not be held accountable fore what we did in this life. The Judgement would be meaningless. The doctrines of judgement and eternal rewards depend on people’s retaining their distinct identities from this life to the next. Death can not destroy us. We will be ourselves without the sin – meaning that we will be the best version that God created us to be.
Distinctness is God’s creation, not Satan’s. What makes us unique will survive. In fact, much of our uniqueness may be uncovered for the very first time. At the very end of Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes, ” Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to the be found most among the most “natural’ men, not amount those who are surrendered to Christ. … Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
“I shall rise from the dead… I shall see the Son of God, the Sun of Glory, and shine myself as that sun shines. I shall be united to the Ancient of Days, to God Himself, who had no morning, never began… No man ever saw God and lived. And yet, I shall live till I see God; and when I have seen him, I shall never die.” – John Donne
Thirdly, I will see God in Heaven.
If I were dealing with Heaven and details of Heaven in the order of importance, I might have begun with a chapter about God and our eternal relationship with Him. The magnificent theme of beholding God’s face should not be poisoned by dull stereotypes and vague, lifeless caricatures. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1) Although we may imagine that we desire a million things, our soul only longs for a relationship with God. Our longing for Heaven is a longing for God. Being with God is the heart and soul of Heaven. Every other heavenly pleasure will derive from and be secondary to his presence. God’s greatest gift to us is, and always will be, himself.
Moses asked God to show him his glory. Although God passed near him, but Moses, as a human, could not see God directly. God “lives in an unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (I Timothy 6:16). The author of Heaven also authored Edge of Eternity. Perhaps our first meeting of God will be something like the character Nick Seagrave who at last sees Jesus Christ.
“The King stepped from the great city, just outside the gate, and put his hand on my shoulder. I was aware of no one and nothing but him. I saw before me an aged, weathered King, thoughtful guardian of an empire. But I also saw a virile Warrior-Prince primed for battle, eager to mount his steed and march in conquest. His eyes were keen as sharpened swards yet deep as wells, full of memories of the old and dreams of the young.”
Hebrews 4:16 invites us to draw near to God’s throne with confidence. In a simply unfathomable invitation, God’s hand is outstreched toward you and me welcoming us into His presence with the privilege of prayer.
“To speak of ‘imagining heaven’ does not imply or entail that Heaven is a fictional notion, constructed by deliberately disregarding the harsher realities of the everyday world. It is to affirm the critical role of the God-given human capacity to construct and enter into mental pictures of divine reality, which are mediated through Scripture and the subsequent tradition of reflection and development. We are able to inhabit the mental images we create, and anticipate the delight of finally entering the greater reality to which they correspond.” – Alister McGrath
Fourthly, Heaven can be imagined from the extensive clues given to me in the Scripture.
When Marco Polo returned to Italy from the court of Kublai Khan, he described a world his audience had never seen – one that could not be understood without imagination. Not that China was an imaginary realm, but it was very different from Italy. Yet as two locations on Planet Earth inhabited by human beings, they had much in common. Similarly, the writers of the Bible present Heaven in many ways including as a garden, a city and a kingdom. Because these are familiar to us, they offer a bridge of understanding. A physical resurrection awaits us. Too often we have been taught that Heaven is a non-physical realm, which cannot have real gardens, cities, kingdoms, buildings, banquets or bodies. So, we fail to take seriously what the Scripture tells us about Heaven as a familiar, physical, tangible place.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (I Cor. 2: 9) The Bible is full of truths about Heaven. Consider marking these clues with a certain color marker. Pay attention. Collecting these truths will help you clearly anticipate your destiny.
“Soon you will read in the newspaper that I am dead. Don’t believe it for a moment. I will be more alive than ever before.” – D.L. Moody
Lastly, I can know for sure that I am going to Heaven.
This is by far my favorite that I know about Heaven.
Ruthanna Metzar, a professional singer, tells a story that illustrates the importance of having our names written in a book. Several years ago she was invited to sing at the wedding of a very wealthy man. According to the invitaion, the reception would be held on the top two floors of Seattle’s Columbia Tower, the Northwest’s tallest skyscraper. She was excited about attending with her husband. At the reception, waiters in tuxedos offered luscious hors d’oeuvres and exotic drinks. The bride and groom approached a beautiful glass and brass staircase that led to the top floor. Someone ceremoniously cut the satin ribbon draped at the bottom of the stairs. They announced the wedding feast was about to begin. Bride and groom ascended followed by their guests. At the top of the stairs, a maitre’d with a bound book greeted the guests outside the doors.
“May I have your name please?”
“I am Ruthann Metzar and this is my husband.” After extensive searching, their names could not be found in the book. She spelled her name and asked for a recheck with no success.
“I am the singer for the wedding. There must be some mistake.”
The gentleman answered, “I don’t care who you are. If your name is not written in the book, you cannot attend the banquet.”
He motioned a waiter who quickly escorted them past the beautifully decorated tables and the scrumptious food to the elevator and pushed G for the parking garage.
After driving in silence for a while, her husband asked her what happened. She remembered that when the invitation arrived, she was too busy to RSVP. She assumed that she could attend regardless of her response because she was the singer.
In the same way, we have been given a magnanimous invitation to Heaven. If we are honest in soul care, our introspective reflection will confirm that we are in need of a relationship with our Father God. The first step in a relationship with our creator is to acknowledge that I am a sinner and that you are a sinner. God is a holy God. His home in heaven is a holy, sin free place. He gives us a choice to select Him. We are not robots or slaves. In ourselves, we cannot satisfy this sin debt. With our free will, we must confess that we are sinners in need of forgiveness. (Romans 10:9) You and I must confess with our own mouths that Jesus is Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead. Confession is a change of mind and heart and results in turning away from evil and looking to God for forgiveness. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ to satisfy the debt of our sins before God. (John 3:16) Believing this and asking Him to become the Lord, the leader, the commander of my life guides you and me into a personal relationship with our Father God. (Ephesians 2: 8, 9)
It is your choice.
“Can you hear the sighing in the wind? Can you feel the heavy silence in the mountains? Can you sense the restless longing in the sea? Can you see it in the woeful eyes of an animal? Something is coming…something better.” – Joni Eareckson Tada
So much more about Heaven can be found in Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven.
- What is life like in the present heaven?
- This world is not our home…or is it?
- Why is the resurrection so important?
- Will the old earth be destroyed or renewed?
- How will we worship God?
- What will our daily lives be like?
- Will the new earth be an Edenic paradise?
- Will there be space and time?
- Will we be ourselves?
- What will our bodies be like?
- Will we eat and drink?
- Will animals be on the new earth?
- Will animals, including our pets, live again?
- Will heaven be boring?
and so much more.
More inspiration:
What is a Christ follower?
Books on Amazon:
Hum of the Home: Routines and Rhythms of Homemaking
Nurturing My Nest: Intentional Home Building and Custom Built Education
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