Heaven Help Us
Twice yesterday - twice - the topic of heaven came up in casual, but meaningful conversations. When things like this happen, it’s easy to chalk it up to coincidence. But more and more I am realizing that these “coincidences” are often God tugging at me to dig deeper.
If you’ve been reading for a while, hopefully you see that I rarely believe I have something all figured out. On the contrary, I am typically writing as a means to help sort it out as thoughts disentangle as they pass through my fingers. Today is absolutely no different. I am no authority on heaven. I simply want to understand more about it and I’m guessing I’m not alone.
After all, if we - even as Christians - believe that Heaven is a perfect final destination - why is that many of leave the earth kicking and screaming? Why do our words say we look forward to heaven and our behaviors say we fear it? Why do we grieve it when people we love are taken to it? Do our best to delay it?
Like many subjects of faith, I sometimes think God should be clearer about it in His word. I want details - all of them. I want to pull up the heaven website and take the virtual tour - see the view from my room, peruse the room service menu, and get familiar with the nearby leisure activities and shopping. But as I’ve been exploring God’s word this morning, it turns out He does give us a pretty clear picture of what we can expect in heaven. Here are three things that have renewed my hope in heaven and reminded me of God’s eternal provisions.
First: in some of his final words with his followers, Jesus comforts us with the reality of heaven and our eternity with Him. In John 14, Jesus has his last meal with his disciples and seizes the opportunity to share truth with them before his arrest. In verses 1-2, he says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.”
Jesus is about to die. He’s leaving his beloved. Imagine how he breathes hope into the devastation and panic in the room with this promise that one day they will all be reunited, safe and secure under the care of our loving Father.
Second: Heaven will be the beautiful and happy home for which we are all longing. For some of us living in this broken world of abundant emotional and physical poverty, it might be hard to imagine living in a beautiful and happy home. But even those who live in the grandest of houses with the most loving of environments, there’s a longing for more. Revelations 21 and 22 tell us that heaven is so beautiful that words can’t do it justice and that it will be absent of all that breaks our hearts here on earth - no sin, no sorrow, no broken relationships, no tears, no hunger or death.
Third: We will enjoy perfect relationship with God and those we love. Just as Elijah and Moses knew one another on the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke 9, we can look forward to enjoying God’s presence with those we love. It will be the ultimate, perfect reunion.
Take these three simple truths which barely scratch the surface on heaven and it’s hard to fathom just how amazing it will be, which reminds me of 1 Cor 2:9, “No eye has seen, no eye has heard and no mind imagined what God has planned for those who love him.”
Heaven, help me be reminded of these truths and trust in the eternal future grace of our final and perfect home.