THINKING ABOUT HEAVEN

There are a few things that can motivate you to think seriously about heaven: realizing that Christ has saved you from eternal punishment in hell; reaching a point in life where the natural abilities & potentials that have always been on the increase in your life are now beginning to level off or even decrease.

There are also many things that make heaven seem irrelevant:

• The naïve, even self-righteous youthful idealism & energy that believes it can change the world just by trying hard enough; 
• Utopian ideas of secular socialism (even “Christian” socialism) that promise heaven on earth; 
• Some kinds of hyper-faith that see the hope of heaven as an escapist mentality; 
• Religions whose cyclical view of existence makes it impossible for the average person to ever attain anything beyond the drudgery of meaningless repetition.

Even just the busy-ness of life can do that.

I think of heaven as completion, fulfillment. Whatever we see, hear, experience, feel, etc. here that brings genuine life will be ours in heaven. The difference is that it will not be in part as we now know it. People sometimes wonder, “Will heaven be like…?” My answer is, “I don’t know, but it will be infinitely better. There is no way to comprehend it now.”

How can a flea imagine nuclear physics? I’m trying to describe the indescribable. There are no earthly words or concepts to explain it. 

If there were, it would not be heaven. There are only analogies.

I will see our first baby, Elizabeth Irene, who went to be with Jesus before she was even born.

I will see my grandmother Rachel Higgins, who prayed me into the Kingdom. She lived nearly long enough to see me graduate from Bible school in 1980.

I will see my pastor Mark Woodbury who was a wonderful encourager; he taught me about leadership & in many ways shaped my ministry here in the Philippines.

I love the old hymn by Fanny Crosby, Draw me Nearer. There’s a verse that says:

There are depths of love that I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea;

There are heights of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with Thee.

But the real completion will be when I see Jesus.