What is Heaven Like?

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." -- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

1. Where is heaven?
The English rock group Led Zepplin did a song called "Stairway to Heaven", which is the single most requested and most played song on FM radio stations in the United States. The idea of a "stairway" to heaven wasn't new… In biblical times heaven was believed to be located in the sky where God and angels dwell. In Genesis 28, Jacob has a dream in which he sees a stairway to heaven, and angels climbing up and down on it, bringing messages down to earth from God, and up to God from earth.

But even scripture acknowledged that even heaven was too small to contain all the glory and presence of God. When the wealthy and wise king Solomon built the first temple of God, he prayed (1 Kings 8:27): "The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"

Jesus said, when he sent out his 12 disciples: "As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near,'" (Matthew 10:7). Jesus also added another word to the sermon that clarifies heaven, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," (Matthew 3:2, 4:17).

He said this because heaven is experienced as salvation is received. In the Revelation 21 text we see the author's vision of heaven: "I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them." As God is welcomed fully by creation, that's where and what heaven is.

2. What will we do in heaven?
Here's what Revelation 22:3-4 says about what we will do in heaven: "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face…" Seeing God's face and serving God are two sides of the same coin. They complete one another. So in heaven we will not only see God, we will serve God.

One of the ways we serve God is through worship (and that could be good or bad, depending on what church you've been to!). The author of Revelation 7 says this about worship in heaven: "They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: 'Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!'"

Have you ever had one of those moments when you were you, and God was God and you were ridiculously grateful that that's how it was? When worship of the almighty God just exploded spontaneously from you and all creation around you? It's indescribable joy. The Psalmist talked of the joy and pleasures in heaven when he wrote: “You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11). Heaven will be a place of service and ecstatic worship, a place of joy in the presence of the Lord.

3. Who will be in heaven?
Heaven is described in Revelation 21 as a holy city, the "new Jerusalem". A city with no people in it is a ghost town. A city is only a city because it is filled with people. The people in heaven are those who have accepted God's gift of salvation. They are people who are changed, no longer saddled with the brokenness of their earthly bodies and spirits, no longer bound by aging and illness and death, nor by egos and past mistakes and fears (Corinthians 15:50-52). These transformed people are wonderfully diverse. The Bible says that Jesus has, “purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

4. Heaven understands your thirst
God said, “To all who are thirsty I will give to drink freely from the spring of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God and they will be my children,” (Revelation 21:6-7).

God knows you are thirsty for something this world just can't give. God understands that there are things you will have to face and overcome. The hope of heaven isn't a means to escape the difficulties of life. It's the hope of heaven that gives you the strength to keep facing the struggle. Maybe today Jesus is calling you. Turn to him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.

May heaven break upon you like rain on the desert sands.
May you look up and rejoice in the gift being offered to you.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand.