Do you ever find yourself experiencing a sense of longing for something that you can’t quite identify? Maybe it is the sense that something unidentifiable is still missing that would make your life complete. Maybe it’s a haunting feeling that someday you will lose something or someone that that is very central to your life right now and that anticipated sense of loss releases a kind of sadness that is vague but very real. Have you ever thought about things you love in his world that you might miss when you have departed…even if your destination is heaven. Maybe it is the warmth of family, the sound of children laughing, a sunrise on the ocean, stars sprinkled through a desert sky, or mist rising off a mountain lake. Maybe it is the warmth of holidays or a wedding that you sense you will never experience again once you leave this world.
As believers, we anticipate heaven and know that something marvelous waits for us there, but somehow we sense we will still miss things we have come to love and appreciate on planet earth. We may even feel guilty for wanting to hold onto this physical experience more than we want to go to heaven as if that is a “worldly” rather than a “spiritual” mindset. Part of the challenge is that most of us have a very vague notion of what heaven will be like. The stereotypes of culture about heaven aren’t helpful. You know … the idea that we will drift on clouds playing harps or that we all become etherial and angelic beings without substance…spirits floating around with little to do. There is also the pervasive view that we will simply worship God every moment of eternity and in doing so, lose our sense of uniqueness and identity. We may believe we will just be part of enormous crowd declaring the praises of God…forever. As much as I love worship and God is worthy of it, that sounds mind numbing after a thousand years.
Perhaps, we also wonder if we will learn in heaven, create in heaven, achieve in heaven, build in heaven, compete in heaven, have fun in heaven or simply live an eternity that, if we are honest, may sound boring and unfulfilling…yet, at the same time, we know we will be thrilled to be in the presence of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It seems confusing.
But here is the good news about heaven. Heaven, ultimately, will be on this earth that we were designed to inhabit. If we read scripture carefully and literally for the most part, God’s plan is not for us to drift in some ethereal spiritual realm forever, but to inhabit the earth that he will restore to its original state before sin. Remember, he looked at his creation, including man, and called it all “Good!” Solomon said that God has placed eternity in our hearts. Because eternity is the idea of everlasting and everlasting means a state that goes back forever as well as forward forever, some of our unfulfilled longings may be for the earth we were created for before sin and the curse prompted a down grade. When I feel sad that I will miss the sunrise, a spring rain, or the Grand Tetons when I transition to heaven, I may be longing for the very things God initially intended for me to enjoy forever.
Paul tells is in Romans 8 that the creation is groaning to he released from its bondage to decay and will be released when God’s children are resurrected at the end. At the resurrection, we will receive bodies no longer subject to decay or death and so will all of creation. There is, of course, a heaven now that we call Paradise that seems to be an intermediate heaven where the saved will wait in comfort for the end of time. But it is not all that heaven will be because heaven will be on earth and God will dwell with his people there. All indications are that it will be much like the earth we know but without sin, without death, without natural disasters, and will be an incredible upgrade in every respect.
It was God’s original intent that man would rule over the earth, develop it, cultivate it, establish godly culture with godly art, music and architecture. God will not give up on his original intent for men. I believe we can anticipate learning, discovery, amazing art and music, and certainly festivals. The heavenly Jerusalem will settle on this earth and we will go up to the great city to celebrate God and all of his blessings. We will all be family and so our sense of family and familiarity will not wane but will be enhanced. There will be animals such that the lion will lie down with the lamb. Who knows what technology or travel or music will be like, but it surely will be part of heaven. What we won’t have is pain, hospitals, war, crime, loss, grief, or cemeteries.
We need to think more about heaven in concrete ways. We don’t need to feel as if we will never see the things we love about this world again, but will see them and experience them as huge upgrades to what already thrills us. We don’t even need to feel unspiritual when we think we might prefer earth to heaven, because in the end, they will be the same. So the next time you see something or hear something on this world that takes your breath away, thank God for it and look forward to being thrilled by even greater things when we live under the new heaven and on the new earth!