John 3:16
Where is heaven? What does heaven look like? Will we know each other in heaven? What will we do in heaven with all that time on our hands? We all have questions about heaven. And very few answers are available. Because there is no one to ask. I don’t know anyone who has been to heaven and come back here, do you? We know something about heaven from the Bible, but only bits and pieces.
Children seem to have some interesting ideas about heaven. When asked, “What do you think heaven is like?” these are some of the answers that children gave:
Eric, age 8 said, “It is a place where there is a lot of money lying around. You could just pick it up, play with it, and buy things. I think I am going to buy a basketball, and I am going to play basketball with my great-great-grandmother.”
Scott, age 6, answered, “Heaven is up in the sky, and you could look down at circuses for free if you want to, except you have to ask God for permission first.”
“Heaven is kind of big and they sit around playing harps,” said David, age 7. “I don’t know how to play a harp, but I suppose I should learn how to play that dumb thing pretty soon.”
And Tommy, age 7, a boy after my own heart, said, “I know what heaven is, but I don’t want to go there. I want to go to South Carolina instead.”
As parents, we try to explain heaven to our children, but it isn’t easy. Because we aren’t all that sure we understand it ourselves. But parents usually do their best to make heaven sound like a place that is good and safe. Ross Sams, Jr., tells about a time when his neighbor’s cat was run over by a car. The mother very quickly buried the cat before her four-year-old son Billy could see it. It was a few days before Billy noticed that the cat was missing, and he finally asked his mother about it. “Billy, I’m sorry, but the cat died,” she told him. “But it’s all right. He’s up in heaven with God.” Billy seemed to think about that for a moment. And then he asked his mom, “What would God want with a dead cat?”
Well, let’s consider some of our questions about heaven. Where is heaven? If you ask most people, they look up. (And if you ask where hell is, they look down.) Is it up in the sky? Well, it hasn’t been sighted in our solar system anywhere. But I believe that there is a real place called heaven out there somewhere. I like what Billy Graham had to say about it years ago. He said, “I believe the Bible teaches that heaven is a literal place. Is it one of the stars? I don’t’ know. I can’t even speculate. The Bible doesn’t inform us. I believe that out there in space where there are one thousand million galaxies, each a hundred thousand light years or more in diameter, God can find some place to put us in heaven. I’m not worried about where it is. I know it is going to be where Jesus is.”
What is heaven going to look like? Well, the Bible seems to imply that there will be precious gems and gold, pearls and crystal and all sorts of shiny things to reflect the constant light that will shine. But I sort of imagine heaven to be kind of like what is described in Psalm 23: a place where there are green pastures and streams of water, maybe hills and valleys and mountains, flowers and trees and all sorts of animals. To me, beauty and riches are not found in valuable jewels, things that we might see as signs of wealth on earth, but in the creations of God. There will be a lot of people there, and angels, and dogs (you know about the rainbow bridge, don’t you?). And we will have “dwelling places,” which is translated in some Bibles as “mansions.” (Personally, I don’t need a mansion. A cozy cottage with lots of bookcases and a nice backyard would suit me just fine.) Of course, other translations read “rooms,” so maybe we’ll all be put into some kind of city high-rise apartment building.
Will we know each other in heaven? That’s a little tougher to answer. After Jesus was raised from the dead, his body was different than it was before. At first, his followers didn’t recognize him; perhaps that was partly due to the shock of seeing him alive when they expected him to be dead. But maybe it was because his body had a different appearance after being resurrected. It was capable of passing through locked doors and transporting itself across a distance. But when he spoke to them, and particularly when he called them by name, they knew who he was. So, yes, I am convinced that we will know our loved ones in heaven. I am looking forward to a great big reunion when I get there, with my family and friends who have gone before me. And I am looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.
What will we do in heaven with all eternity to do it in? The Bible mentions a few things. For one thing, we will spend time worshiping and praising God. The book of Revelation includes 14 songs that are sung by groups of people who are in heaven. So if you hate singing, I expect God will change your heart somewhere between earth and heaven so that you will be ready to join in with the heavenly choir! We will also serve God, according to two different verses in Revelation. We will enjoy fellowship with each other, seen in Revelation 19:9 as a crowd gathers at the wedding banquet of the Lamb. And we will rest from our labor, never again experiencing hunger or thirst or sadness, according to Revelation 7:16-17. I, for one, will enter heaven with a lot of questions that I hope to have answered. I can’t wait to ask Paul what in the world he was thinking when he wrote all those crazy things about women!? And I hope there is a great library up there. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, author, and professor, stated, “Heaven is where questions and answers become one.”
Heaven is going to be a place of utter joy, eternal joy, joy that bubbles over. One of my favorite pieces of literature is a play by Eugene O’Neill called, Lazarus Laughed. Written in 1925, it tells the story of Lazarus after he was raised from the dead by Jesus. Since he was brought back from the dead, people were curious about what it was like to be dead, to have gone to heaven. Lazarus replied by laughing, and by repeatedly telling them that there is no death, only God’s laughter. Over time, he attracts a crowd of followers who begin calling him a savior and conqueror of death. Then rumors begin to spread that he is some kind of deity and that he can heal the sick by his laughter. He attracts the attention of the Roman emperor Tiberius, who demands that Lazarus be burned at the stake to prove once and for all that there really is death. As the flames begin to burn Lazarus alive, he laughs and shouts out, “The hope of God is eternal laughter!”
In closing, I’d like to share a story that made the rounds of the internet a few years ago. I have no idea of the source; it was passed along to me in an e-mail. There was a woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been told that she only had three months to live. As she was getting her affairs in order, she got in touch with her pastor and asked him to come to discuss her final wishes. She told him which hymns she wanted sung at her funeral service, and what scriptures she would like to have read. She even told him which outfit she wanted to be buried in. She asked him to make sure that she was buried with her favorite Bible. Everything seemed to be in order and the pastor was getting ready to leave when the woman suddenly remembered something.
“There’s one more thing,” she said. “What’s that?” asked the pastor. “This is very important,” she answered. “I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.” The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing quite what to say. “That surprises you, doesn’t it?” the woman asked. “Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by your request,” he said. The woman explained, “In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, I always remember when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, somebody would lean over and say, ‘Keep your fork.’ It was my favorite part, because I knew that something better was coming … like chocolate cake or apple pie. Something wonderful! So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want the to wonder, ‘What’s with the fork?’ Then I want you to tell them: Keep your fork; the best is yet to come.”
The pastor’s eyes welled up with tears of joy as he hugged the woman goodbye. He knew this would be one of the last times he would see her before her death. But he also knew that this woman had a better grasp of heaven than he did. She knew that something better was coming.
At the funeral, people were walking by the woman’s casket and they saw the pretty dress she was wearing and her favorite Bible and the fork in her right hand. Over and over, the pastor heard the question, “What’s with the fork?” And over and over he just smiled. During his funeral message, the pastor told the people about the conversation he had had with the woman that day. He told them about the fork and what it had symbolized to her. The pastor told them that he could not stop thinking about the fork, and he told them that they probably wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it either. He was right. So the next time you reach down for your fork, let it be a reminder to you that the best is yet to come.
