What is Heaven Like?
Or…more to the point…what will Heaven be like? That’s the question I’ve pondered for a long time. Will I have a whole body? Will I finally be able to throw off this un-whole body for a complete one? Sure, I’ve asked those questions many times before. I’ve finally come to an answer within the last few years. Ready…here is the answer:
It doesn’t matter.
Really. Whether or not I have a whole body means nothing to me. Yes, I’ll admit that right now, my preference would be to have a whole body in Heaven. But, I guarantee you that when I reach Heaven, my body’s physical status will be very low on my list of priorities. I’ll be in Heaven…how could Heaven disappoint?
Beyond that, though, I believe the main idea of Heaven is to be in the physical presence of God. Many of our songs focus on the wrong image of Heaven. We sing about having a mansion and walking on streets of gold. Those are all concepts we can understand as tangible…but the are also very worldly in terms of possesions. The true value of Heaven is to be with God. Check out this passage from Genesis 3:8 (NASB):
They [Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Now, they hid because they had just done something the Lord had told them not to, but catch this phrase “the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” Wow. That doesn’t say “God called to them from a cloud” or “God, who was not physically with them”…it says He was WALKING in the garden. I believe that Heaven will be an amazing sight for us, as we get to see God walking in our midst. Yes, He is God, and yes, we will still worship Him…but not like ever before as He will be in our presence.
That is what Heaven is all about. I do not worry about what my body will look like in Heaven. Instead, I dream of a day when I will be with God, the maker of the Universe, and my heavenly Father. I think the old hymn puts it best:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.“In the Garden” – Words & Music: C. Austin Miles, March 1912