Sometimes, we can have all the wrong ideas about heaven. We visualize a stereotypical image of people floating on clouds, playing harps and singing their praises all day. We see ourselves walking on streets of gold and doing nothing much. In fact, we may even think heaven to be a boring place.
Why is it that we can picture hell better than we could ever imagine heaven?
Perhaps we can easily imagine what a life of pain is like. We are well too acquainted also with the hell and turmoil we feel within. We know what anger, anxiety and emptiness must be like. But we do not know heaven.
What is heaven? What is it like to be truly happy?
Too many times, we have equated happiness with the mere pleasures that amused us on earth. The lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the fleeting success that keeps us busy and striving for more.
But what if we lose all of that? What could be left to be happy about?
Let’s start by trying to imagine what a day of happiness could be like:
1. A day without pain
At one point or another, you may have experienced some form of suffering. You and I have experienced pain.
For many people who have experienced being sick and bedridden for a long time, heaven would be that place and time when they shall finally be healed.
No more pain. Only healing and the restoration of health and strength.
In that blessed day when God makes all things new, the blind would see, the lame would walk and the deaf would hear the great and endless music of the angels!
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
-Revelation 21:3-4 (NRSVCE)
2. A day of reuniting with the ones we loveliness
If you have ever grieved the loss of a loved one, imagine heaven as that place when you shall see them again.
In that wonderful place, you will see them and talk to them again. You will recognize each other, but you shall see them at their best! Whole, holy and filled with joy.
It is a day when you can talk about all the years you spent together and all those years you’ve spent apart. You would realize that time has passed so swiftly. Your grief had been for a moment but your time together will never end.
3. A day of healing our emotional and spiritual wounds
In your earthly life, there could be something that made you suffer more than physical illness or pain. Deep within, you may have had emotional or spiritual wounds.
You felt unloved, unworthy and broken. You’ve been betrayed, lied to, abused and taken advantage of.
You may also have so many regrets. You have hurt others yourself and you feel ashamed with what you have done.
Heaven is that place where you can be healed and where you can be whole again.
In heaven, you will see that justice is rendered with mercy and love.
Heaven is that place where you can finally forgive and where you can be forgiven. It is where your sins can finally be taken away by Him who gave His very life to redeem yours.
4. A day of incomparable beauty
Have you ever gazed at something so beautiful you felt as though you’ve just experienced eternity? That’s what heaven must be like.
You can imagine the most beautiful scenery there is and it would still pale in comparison to the beauty that you shall see in heaven.
There, beauty will be constant yet ever new. There, beauty will remain and will always be a part of you. In heaven, you will finally see God face to face. And who could ever be more beautiful than Him?
“At present we are on the outside… the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the pleasures we see… Someday… We will put on glory… that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch.
We do not want to merely “see” beauty… We want something else which can hardly be put into words–to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”
― C.S. Lewis
Final thoughts
Our idea of heaven could never match the true happiness that awaits us. In heaven, we shall not only be free from pain, we shall be healed and whole again. More whole than we have ever been before!
There, we shall run and never get tired. There, we can move wherever we desire in the twinkling of an eye.
Heaven is home. Our eternal home where our loved ones will be with us again.
In heaven, we will finally understand the value of all our sufferings. When we see God face-to-face, we shall have no more questions. What is left to ask when we have been found in Him at last!
“…now you are sad, but I will see you again, and your hearts will be filled with gladness, the kind of gladness that no one can take away from you.” – John 16:22 (GNT)
You may want to get my e-book “What Should You Look Forward To In Heaven?”
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In