Tuesday, March 24, 2009

On Heaven


The other day, I caught myself dissing Heaven in my mind. I was standing in some dense fog and the thought came, “Wow. This reminds me of Heaven.” Not because the fog was pretty or stirred a yearning in my heart--it’s because it was white and bland like a Mac commercial. B-O-R-I-N-G. And somehow, the boredom made me think of Heaven.

Oh, how pathetically human can I get?

Yet Heaven is home. Our really-truly home. It’s described in Scripture as more than a fog or a billowy, cloudy place. The adjectives that surround Heaven are solid, concrete words, such as “streets,” “walls,” “rooms,” “thrones,” and it is even mentioned to be situated near a “lake.” That doesn’t sound foggy or depressing to me. Yet, the thought of Heaven lasting for eternity does seem to have a depressing effect.

This week, a plane crash in Montana killed fourteen people—three entire families. Describing the story, a news anchor observed, “[Just outside crash site stand] fourteen white crosses, marking the moment where these families were torn apart. Forever.”

The word “forever” ended definitively, like a thud. Hopelessly. And it’s not surprising either, coming from a secular news program. I wonder though, when contemplating death, how many Christians are secretly as miserable about it. We daydream about our future on earth, but we don’t daydream habitually about Heaven. Hence, we do not eagerly look forward to it.

I want to see if we can start daydreaming. What will Heaven be like?

Think about this perk of Heaven: no death. We will never again have reason to fear death or losing our loved ones. Think of how this will translate into our activities: Will we be able to do really daredevilish things for the fun of it? After all, we’ll be immortal. There will be no suffering. We could skydive without parachutes. I could lose my fear of heights and go cliff jumping, because there will be no danger. If I crashed to the ground, it might hurt as much as falling on a trampoline.

On a more serious note, we will no longer have death’s influence on our souls. George MacDonald observed that when we a human being is overburdened and disheartened, it “imagines itself weary of life, but it is death, not life, it is weary of.” We won’t have the temptation to be depressed or despair. Death will not be present to wear us out.

And above it all, there will be one Supreme Joy that will overshadow every other delightful thing Heaven has to offer. Because of God’s Presence, the place will become wonderful in the truest sense. As C.S. Lewis’s Aslan attempted to explain to the Pevensie children, at the death of Old Narnia: “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended; this is the morning.” It was not death, but the extraction of death from all things. They were living.


This coming week, Lindsey and I intend to post different musings on Heaven--not because we think our ideas are necessarily correct (who can know?), but in order to start giving Heaven the focus it deserves. We hope you'll join in! We'd love to hear verses, quotes, or thoughts you've had on Heaven, too.

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