Why focus on Heaven? Isn’t that a bad thing to do, even ungodly?

“This life ought to be spent by us only as a journey towards heaven.”

- Jonathan Edwards

To understand what Heaven is, we have to understand where we came from. We are meant for Paradise. Our souls – the who we are – are designed for Paradise. Since we got kicked out of that Paradise, however, we walk around carrying holes in our souls, gaps that cannot be filled with anything of this present world. We also carry unique desires that we sometimes get made fun of for, or longings that seem ‘other-worldly.’ These desires, these longings, these holes sprout from the world we are made for – they make up who we are, but we’re not home. Jesus came to bring us home; in confessing that He is Lord, and believing in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, we are saved. But being saved is not just being delivered of the punishment for sin; it is not just forgiveness. Being saved is a fancy two-word duo that means getting the life back. That is why Jesus said,

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” – John 10:10, NIV

Jesus came to give us tastes of this life here and now. So many people make the mistake of thinking that Jesus means we’re getting all the life we lost back now. No – we’re just getting glimpses. Jesus doesn’t want to spoil it (though, as we’ll see, how can you spoil something so good?). Jesus says, “Live by faith.” Live by faith that the life Jesus came for is the life we will receive. In all our hardships and pains and troubles, we are often tempted to give up: “This isn’t the life Jesus meant – is it?” No. It’s not. We do find life in this world, more life than those who don’t have Jesus, and our holes are filled semi-deep, but we won’t be made complete until we return home – to the Paradise we lost, to communion with God, to the beauty and adventure and intimacy we thirst for. This is the Message of Jesus – life is coming! You’re going home! Evangelism is not doctoring the sick – it is sending poor, hungry, lost travelers home.

“[God] has planted eternity in the human heart.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT

We are all dying to know what heaven will be like. It is written in all of us. A sad truth is that ‘heaven’ has been turned into an oxymoron – we are told we will be worshipping God by singing hymn after hymn, one after the other, forever and ever, amen. We are told heaven is a place of baby angels with halos and harps, sitting on white clouds. We are told it will be a never-ending church service. That’s what most of us imagine it as being. We say, “Yea! Heaven! I can’t wait!” but deep down we’re saying, “That doesn’t sound so exciting. That sounds boring.” It doesn’t just sound boring – it sounds like Hell. No wonder we live lives of quiet desperation, void of hope – we are in the mindset that this fallen, crooked world is all there is. If for all practical purposes we believe that this life is our best shot at happiness, if this is as good as it gets, we will live as desperate, demanding, and eventually despairing men and women.

We speak of Heaven so seldom and when we do, the images are sickly: fat babies fluttering around with tiny wings, bored saints lazing on shapeless clouds, strumming harps and wondering what’s happening back on earth where all the action is. Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft writes:

“Our pictures of Heaven simply do not move us; they are not moving pictures. It is this aesthetic failure rather than intellectual or moral failures in our pictures of Heaven and of God that threatens faith most potently today. Our pictures of Heaven are dull, platitudinous and syrupy; therefore, so is our faith, our hope, and our love for Heaven. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a dull lie or a dull truth. Dullness, not doubt, is the strongest enemy of faith, just as indifference, not hate, is the strongest enemy of love.” (Everything you wanted to know about Heaven)

Are we to believe that an eternal church service is better than going swimming at the beach, white-water rafting, hanging out with friends, hiking across the Appalachian Trail, even stepping on the moon? Have we dreamed better dreams than God can dream? Have we written better endings to stories than God can write? Here’s some good news – an eternal church service is not Heaven.

Yet most Christians do not have the faintest notion of what Heaven will be like. One of the “grand essentials” of human happiness is having something to do, and most of us think that we’ll just be sitting around or standing in Heaven; it an unspoken fear, one that we don’t let out too much, and because we don’t seem as excited as Paul does, or as excited as all the others in our church (who, by the way, might just be throwing on the show of excitement as many do) we feel dirty and cheap and spiritually unclean. After all, the never-ending sing-along in the sky isn’t exactly breath-taking!

Luke 20:38 says, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Jesus meant that those who love and are loved by God are not allowed to cease to exist, because they are God’s treasures. He delights in them and intends to hold onto them. He has even prepared for them an individualized work in His vast universe. God will not allow us to ever cease from existence; the moment we die, we are standing before God, at the gates of the new heavens and the new earth. No wonder it is written, “Death, where is your sting?” No wonder Paul said, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul knew what Heaven is like! And when you finish reading this, you will, too.

Did you know Jesus referred to Heaven as Paradise only once? In all the Gospels of his life, he is recorded calling Heaven paradise only once.

“Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!” – Hebrews 12:2,3, The Message

When the time came for him to be betrayed by a friend, to be abandoned by those he loved; when the time came when he stood naked before the world, mocked and ashamed; when the time came when the clothes were torn off his back and he was punished for innocence; when he was so tired and so worn that he couldn’t even carry a piece of limber; when the nails were driven into his hands and feet, and when he was raised up, naked (people were crucified naked in Roman times) before the earth, beaten and bloodied, laughed at by those he loved and by those he hated, he remembered. He’d been to Heaven before; that’s where he came from. He hadn’t called Heaven Paradise yet, but now, as he is about to die, when all strength left him, when the temptation to jump off that cross and heal his body that instant came on, he held off by remembering. A guilty criminal said, “Remember me in your Kingdom.” I imagine Jesus’ eyes lit up, and the pain seemed to falter a bit, and he knew where he was going; his own words went through his soul, and he hung on a bit longer, when he told the criminal, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43). When life gets tough for us, when we’re tired and worn out and the road doesn’t seem to end; when we’re sick and want to vomit because of how bad we have it – don’t let people tell you we Christians have it good, we don’t – then we need to remember. Jesus remembered, and he ached for it with all his heart. We must remember.

We are called to remember Heaven. Jesus stressed it so much because we need to keep an eye on it. We need to know where we’re going. To say, “If you think about Heaven all the time, you’re ungodly,” is an oxymoron. In 1 John chapter 2, John – who is known as the disciple Jesus loved most intimately – says, “If we claim communion with God, we need to live like Jesus.” Jesus kept Heaven at the front of his mind all the time. When the criminal spoke, Jesus didn’t say, “Today you will find the love of God,” or “today you will receive mercy and grace.” He didn’t even say, “Today your sins will be forgiven.” All are true. But what was on Jesus’ mind?

“Today you will be with me in Paradise!”

If you want to know what a painting is like, look at the painter. To get a glimpse of what Heaven will look like, without reaching into the Bible, we need to look at the painter God. How do we begin to describe Him? Artistic. Powerful. Awesome. Majestic. Intricate. Delicate. Whimsical. Creative. The universe is beautiful, and deep inside every one of us, we long to find our place in it, we long to care and develop it; it is for this that we were made. The only story worth living in is the story of us returning Home; the road goes out before us, and our destination awaits.