What will Heaven be like?

While heaven cannot be fathomed, imagined, touched to the extremity of how amazing it will really be, God has given us some clues, some foretastes, that when you dig into them, make you think – and make you smile. Jesus speaks of the ‘restoration of all things,’ a great wedding feast, paradise. Jesus told the criminal on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” In Heaven, we will find intimate communion with the Trinity – but as heretical as it sounds, that in itself is not enough for the human soul. Some think the human souls’ passion for beauty and adventure as well is something dirty and unclean, and that when we get to Heaven, these ‘corrupt’ passions will be stripped away. No! They will be even more intense, because the passion for beauty and adventure is from God! We are designed that way!

We will find such beauty all around us in a new restored creation – a new heavens and a new earth. Here we will be able to live out the beauty and the adventure.

"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.” – Isaiah 65:17, NIV

A desire for beauty is within us all. The things that attract us the most are things – or persons – of beauty. One man said that his wife was so beautiful, so mesmerizing, it was just beyond comprehension to imagine how beautiful the creator of such beauty is! All beauty stems from the hand of God. Yellowstone Park, the rainbows after a spring rain, the turning colors of leaves, dew on the grass, the Grand Canyon – all this beauty comes from God. And so, when we float down the Amazon, travel through the deserts of Australia, marvel at the waves against the shore, sometimes we feel aches – aches because we know the beauty we see now will not last; aches because we were meant for eternal beauty. Heaven is a place of eternal beauty. All the beautiful spots you’ve ever known – for me, the green-backed Tennessee mountains, the ocean, and sunlight coming through the trees – are just foretastes of what is to come. The Himalayas, Congo jungle, all the luxurious vacationing spots you can imagine – all are shadows of the realities to come.

However, we just don’t want to see beauty. We want to be part of beauty. We thirst to be beautiful. In Heaven, we will be immersed in beauty, and will be beautiful ourselves. This longing for beauty beyond the eyes cannot be put into words – we want to be united with the beauty we see, we want to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become a part of it. In the Kingdom of Heaven, we shall. We shall all find this beauty in the restoration, and part of the adventure will be discovering and enjoying the wonder of a new creation.

Restoration means that what is old will be made new. What is dark will be made light. What is dirty will be made clean. Peter writes in 2 Peter 2:11-13:

“Since everything here might be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements will melt that day – but we’ll hardly notice. We’ll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness.”

Think of how beautiful Maui and Cancun and the Caribbean are now, corrupted and ruined by sin; imagine how they will be fully restored, brought back to how they were before sin entered the picture! Our world is in a state of winter – cold, dry, bleak, the trees are bare, the air is cold, the sky is gray. Heaven is spring – warmth, cool rains, bright sun, leaves on the trees, flowers budding, life! All the beauties and glory of the original creation will return.

The universe and all in it will be restored – oceans free from oil, skies empty of pollution, sharks that cuddle, and lions that play with children. Look at how the prophet Isaiah put it in Isaiah 11:6-9 –

“The wolf will romp with the lamb,

the leopard will sleep with the kind.

Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,

And a little child will tend them.

Cow and bear graze the same pasture,

their calves and cubs grow up together,

and the lion eats straw like the ox.

The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,

The toddler sticks his hand down the hole of a serpent.

Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill…”

Animals will not be able to hurt us! Sin and fear will not keep us revolted at spiders or snakes or scorpions! All of God’s creation will be radiating from His glory. We will be able to lay down with the tigers, swim with the sharks, play with the spiders, roam with the rhinoceros. All the extinct animals will be there, too. A friend and I agreed that when we get to heaven, we’re both going to ride a dinosaur. It will happen.

Not only will we be able to enjoy this new creation – swimming with dolphins, running with elephants, flying with eagles, reunion parties on Pluto – but we will be made Lords and Masters over it. The new heavens and new earth are our inheritance (Matthew 25:31-34). Those who love God and run after Him, really living for Him, will be put in charge over God’s possessions – possessions of a new heavens and a new earth (Matthew 24:45-47). In Revelation 22:5, the point is made ever clearer when it says, “And they will reign for ever and ever.” (Emphasis added). The minister’s wife at my current church is obsessed with giraffes; perhaps she will be one in a league watching over them in Heaven? Maybe God-followers of the same make-up of Stephen Hawking will be plotting with physics all day long. Fascinated by astronomy? Maybe you will rule over the stars in the Kingdom. A friend said, “Heaven is not tailor-made for us individually.” I say, Why not? Scripture seems to say so!

The One who created you and set all those loves and gifts in your heart, the One who has shaped all your life experiences (including the one that seem to make no sense), this God has prepared a place for you that is more than perfect fit for all your gifts and quirks and personality traits – even those you didn’t know you had. Jesus Christ is not joking when he says that we will inherit the Kingdom and take up positions of control, to reign creatively and with power. We will not sit around looking at one another or at God for eternity but will join the eternal Logos, “reign with him,” in the endlessly ongoing creative work of God. It is for this that we were each individually intended, as both kings and priests (Exodus 19:6, Revelation 5:10). A place in God’s creative order has been reserved for each one of us from before the beginnings of cosmic existence. His plan is for us to develop, as apprentices to Jesus (the One who brought all creation into existence, John 1:1-4), to the point where we can take our place in the ongoing creativity of the universe. While our desires, our gifts aren’t being used to the fullest in this life, while our talents are ignored and some of our dreams mocked, Christ promises that we shall be actively fulfilling our total design in the adventures of the new kingdom. Right now, in this life we live, we are being shaped, molded, groomed for a part in the grand drama that is coming. C.S. Lewis said:

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Each of our souls have a unique shape to fit God. We are not all the same, but unique creations each one of us. Often our ‘calling’ calls us to things that we can’t touch in this life. We are lost, fatigued, weary. We think, “Why has God put this on my heart if I cannot live it out?” How many of us have considered that this is how we were meant to be, but because we got kicked out of Eden, we aren’t? How many of us have thought that when we enter the second Eden – the Kingdom of Heaven – we will be living it out more than we could ever have imagined? How wonderful it will be to have our souls released to their true destiny, in a world no longer stained by sin or under the curse. To throw ourselves into some wonderful enterprise, unhindered by our own weaknesses or the frustrations typical of a broken world. Gardeners dream of a spot of ground with rich soil and not a weed or sow bug to be found. They shall have it. Architects dream of the day when they shall build their own designs and not just carry out the plans of others. They shall. Those who desire to cultivate, nourish, watch over and study ancient creatures will. Like little children eager to show off precious creations, we shall bring them to our Father in Jerusalem, for glory and praise.

The “glorious freedom” of the children of God is not just freedom from sin. It is freedom to live. It’s a freedom of being all we are meant to be. We won’t be held back by anything anymore; no, we will have finally hit our stride. We can pursue our passions without the hindrances of lack of time, or money, or whatever it may be. Those who always wanted to start a rock band will be able to build one greater than ever, and play any style of music they want – jazz, hardcore, Scream-O, classical. Those who always dreamt of sailing across the ocean in a sailboat will be able to; there will be no danger of death, no danger of failure! The miracles that have already happened are, of course, as the Scripture often says, the first fruits of that cosmic summer which is presently coming on. Christ has risen, and so we shall rise. St. Peter for a few seconds walked on the water, and the day will come when there will be a remade universe, infinitely obedient to the will of glorified and obedient men, when we can do all things, when we shall be those gods that we are described as being in Scripture. Yes! Yes!

Throughout our lives, each one of us lives with a constant nagging that we never quite fit in, we never truly belong. We’ve all had enough experiences to teach us that we will never be allowed into the “sacred circle,” the place of intimacy. We desire so strongly for that intimacy, that belonging – this is why it feels good when you are popular, when people talk good about you, when you’re at the top of the best friendships lists. However, in this world, most of us never find that intimacy, and those who do, usually can never keep it. In the fourteenth chapter of John, chapter 2, Jesus says, “I am going… to prepare a place for you.” We’ll be welcomed into Heaven by our Lover Himself, the King of the Universe. He will give us a home in Heaven. What will this home be like? One translation says that we will have “mansions in Heaven.” Perhaps you will live in Alaska, against the ocean; or in Florida, or Maui, or the Serengeti? That dream house you never could afford? It is a cardboard shack compared to the amazing mansion prepared for us in the new heavens and new earth! The deepest longing of our heart – our longing to be part of the sacred circle, to be inside – reveals to us the greatest of the treasures heaven has in store. For we were made in and for the most sacred circle of all. It will no longer just be Father, Son, Holy Spirit – but Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and you.

We will have a place in Heaven, and we will be in communion with God – we will finally find that intimacy we ache for, and we will be given our real names, the names of our souls, who we are, on white tablets of stone given to us personally by God (Revelation 2:17). Of this name, George MacDonald writes:

“It is the man’s own symbol – his soul’s picture, in a word – the sign which belongs to him and to no one else. Who can give a man this, his own name? God alone… Such a name cannot be given until the man is the name [we will be our true selves finally in Heaven]… that being whom He had in His thought when He began to make the child, and whom He kept His thought through the long process of creation that went to realize the idea. To tell the name is to seal the success – to say, “In thee also I am well pleased.” (Unspoken Sermons)

We will enter this unbelievable new creation not how we are now. We will keep our gender; we will keep our personality; we will keep our memories of earth, and of friendships. We will remember when I spoke to you about this place, and we’ll laugh and say, “We had no idea!” We may carry personalities and memories to heaven with us, but what we won’t carry is our physical form. See what Paul says in Philippians 3:20,21-

“But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.” The Message

Those who were blind will be able to see the beauty of the universe. The deaf will hear the laughter of friends and family, and hear the surf and the wind of the new creation. The lame will jump and dance and run around the new heavens and new earth. Those whose brains were tempered with disabilities will understand, and see, and be full and alive. Those who wished to be brave, will be brave. Those who always longed to be beautiful, will be beautiful. Those who wished to be leaders, will be leaders. What we once yearned to be, we will be! We will be beautiful and whole! The elderly will be young again, and the babies will be mature through the power of God.

We will meet up with friends and family who decided to put their faith in God. We will see once more our brothers and sisters, our parents and grandparents, sons and daughters, friends. Everyone who ever decided to live for God will meet back together – reunions with tears of joy, happiness that bubbles over; screams of excitement! And God smiling over it all! Some say that we will not be able to remember one another in the Kingdom; this is blasphemy! The universe is based off of a relationship between the Trinity; we are creations designed for community. The question is not if we’ll know each other’s names or recognize each other, but when will that day come? In Heaven we will be fully exposed, but it will not be embarrassing or shameful – it will be for our total delight. We will be perfect; each of us will be the individual soul God had in mind all along. Whatever memory of the past we will have in Heaven, this way know – in one way or another, it will contribute to our joy. 

We will worship God, but not only through music. My friend asked, “What kind of worship music would Jesus play?” After a few moments of thought, he said, “I guess whatever kind that sounded good to His ears!” The variation in worship is amazing, and the variation isn’t just found in styles of music. Creation worships God, and we worship God when we enjoy creation! When we enjoy the new creation, we will be worshipping God – don’t you know how you feel when you give someone a gift and they love it so much they cry and won’t ever let go? This worship will be like nothing we’ve ever experienced, or ever will till the day we stand in the restoration. We will adore Him. Heaven is the return of the beauty, the intimacy, the adventure we were created to enjoy, and have yearned for every day of our lives. And it is immortal.

Jesus says we will inherit the Kingdom – this isn’t metaphorical! All the cosmos will be before us! No longer will we be bound by our bodies and physical limitations – we will be given the task of ruling over, with power and creativity, the kingdom of God!

Imagine the greatest days of your life, combine them into one, multiply it by an eternity, and repeat it over and over for eternity. There is Heaven! It cannot be lost; it cannot be taken. As we were created to reign over the earth – to explore and discover and create and do all those things we long to do – that is our destiny. Those deep desires God has planted in us – maybe desires to be musicians, or paleontologists, or teachers, or desires to go places, see things, experience things – all will become reality in Heaven.

There will be no more death. No more sorrow, no more pain. No more depression or anxiety or worry or fear. All of that will be gone – it is all the waste of a sinful, corrupted world. But now we will be spending eternity laughing, loving, playing, having fun! See Revelation 21:3,4

“Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God! He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good – tears gone, crying gone, pain gone – all this order of things gone.” The Message