Today there seems to be a lot of confusion about Heaven. The pop culture image is of a load of clouds with winged people sitting around endlessly strumming harps. Honestly, it sounds pretty boring.
Actually there are many questions we may have about Heaven for which the answer is “we just don’t know.” However, the details the Bible does give us paint a picture of a truly amazing place. The image it paints of God’s special dwelling place is definitely not boring. And it never says people get wings!
Heaven is an amazing place because there God’s glory is on full display. The glimpses the Bible gives us of Heaven is of a place so infinitely wondrous, so astonishingly beautiful that eternity is not enough time to get bored there. Also, time and again we are told that the joys of 1 second in Heaven far outweigh any amount of suffering, difficulty and pain we may have endured on earth.
Think of the moments in your life when you have felt most alive, most joy-filled. That’s a tiny flavour of what Heaven will be like forever. And in Heaven there is no pain, disease, disappointment or death.
But Heaven is a place of perfection and only perfectly righteous people are allowed in. Yes, only those who are considered by God to have lived absolutely perfect lives in terms of thoughts, words and deeds are allowed into Heaven. It is not the default resting place that everyone goes to so long as they’ve lived “OK” lives.
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
The Book of Psalms, Chapter 24, verses 3 and 4
The big question then becomes “how does anyone get into Heaven, when none of us have lived perfect lives?” We’ll be exploring this more very soon.
Your thoughts are welcome! Please feel free to leave some feedback, questions or even disagreements.
Yours Truthfully 