"Will we play basketball in
heaven?" a high school student asked me in the Sunday school class I
taught. "If we do, it won't be any fun because everything will be perfect.
Nobody would make any mistakes."
I could have said, “Well, basketball
is out. First you’ll have to take harp
lessons. Then I think you’ll have to
lose weight so you won’t fall through the clouds.... And you’d better not tromp
on the flowers, or skateboard on the streets of gold....”
Can you imagine teens wanting to go
there? Maybe you wouldn’t want to go, either.
Now that I’m older and passed up the
opportunity here to do a few things, I tell folks when I get my new immortal
body that will never get injured and can’t be killed I’m going to skydive, snow
and water ski, and do all sorts of dangerous sports—maybe even bull riding!
Well, I’ll admit the Bible doesn’t
say there will be bulls in heaven, but I know horses are there because Jesus
will come back on a White Horse.
You wonder, Well, what did you
tell the kid who likes basketball?
Activities will be different
When the high school student asked that question, I had no idea what to
say. I prayed silently for wisdom before I answered. I had never even given
such an idea thought, but I said, "Keith, I don't know. But I believe
heaven will be so much higher and so much better than what we have here on
earth that it's like comparing being a child to being an adult.
"When you're a child, you play
with dolls and toy cars. But when you are an adult you have real babies and
drive a real car.
"When you're a kid, if an adult
would tell you that you can't play with dolls or toy cars after you get
"big", the child would scream and holler and decide he didn't want to
grow up. But once he does, he doesn't want the toys anymore because he has the
real thing.
"I think that's the way heaven
will be. It will fulfill our every desire and give us so much joy what we had
here will seem like child’s play."
The Bible tells us heaven will
exceed earthly experiences. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
This is a paraphrase from Isaiah
64:4. But we do have some knowledge because God has revealed it to us by His
Spirit, the next verse says.
If we search the scriptures, we find
out a lot about heaven.
Will we be
on another planet?
You've
probably wondered exactly where it is.
The Apostle Paul talked about the
"third heaven". Some Jews believe God's abode was in the seventh
heaven.
I have always believed the first
heaven was where the clouds float in puffy white shapes on our air and where
birds fly. The second heaven is where the planets and stars and located, and
the third heaven is where God is.
Will we be beamed up like in Star Wars?
Jesus went up into heaven and a
cloud received him out of the sight of the 500 people gathered on the
mountaintop. But we don't know exactly what happened when the cloud hid him
from view. Was he suddenly "beamed up" and immediately at the right
hand of the Father?
Certainly his trip wouldn't be at
any speed earthlings would recognize, because a short time later Stephen was
being stoned and had a vision of heaven, and Jesus was standing at the right
hand of God (Acts 7:56).
If we needed to know where heaven
is, I'm sure Jesus would have told us. In John 14 when Jesus described his
destination, where he also would prepare a place for us, old Doubting Thomas
said, "We don't know where you are going, and how can we know the
way?"
Jesus answered, "Where I go you
know--and you know the way."
He further explained that He is the
Way, and that no one can come to the Father without going through Him.
Philip then asked Jesus to show him
the Father.
Will we
see and visit with God?
We humans
like things we can see, feel and touch. Have you ever felt like asking Jesus to
show us God and heaven?
Jesus told Philip, "Have I been
with you so long, and yet you don’t know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so
how can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Do you not believe that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me?"
The mystery of the trinity surfaces
here, but yet one thing is clear. If you have learned to trust in Jesus, you
also trust in God, because he is God the Son.
If you have a real relationship with Jesus, you don't need to see God
the Father. You can see His works. You can attest to the validity of His Word
because you’ve probably witnessed answers the prayer, changed lives, as well as
observed how you are miraculously and wonderfully made, as well as the whole
universe.
Yet, when venturing into the unknown
our faith, like Phillip’s, grows weak.
Is God really making a place for me?
Perhaps life on earth for us is similar to a young person leaving for
college. The student doesn't actually need to see the money his parents
promises to pay tuition and room and board, or
will send when spending money is needed.
If the student knows his parents
love him and are faithful stewards, he just accepts his parents' promises will
become reality.
The whole discussion with Philip
began after Jesus told the disciples he was going away to prepare a place for
them. Jesus also said He would come back to get them so that where he was, they
could be, too (John 14).
The story could be compared to any
number of families from foreign countries where the husband immigrated to the
United States, leaving behind a wife and family after America was discovered.
"When I get a job, a house and
enough money saved, I'll send for you," men by the thousands promised.
The wife and children often waited
years before the husband had enough money saved to send for his family. But
most wives remained faithful to the man because they knew him and he kept his
word.
I think of my Jewish friend, Ruth
Stein, whose parents were separated by half a world for eight years of their
marriage.
Three years after Yocheved Chalodney
and Sam Dobin were married in a little village near Smoensk, Russia, Dobin
immigrated to the United States. He thought his wife, child, and the baby his
wife was expecting, would follow soon to the land of opportunity.
Instead, by the time he had enough
money to send for them, World War I was in progress.
For six years, the Russian village
didn't even receive mail. War was so close artillery fire vibrated the windows.
In the fall of 1921, the hoped-for
letter from Ruth's father arrived, and soon the family landed in New York,
ready to go to Pueblo, Colo., to a city and a home they had never seen.
But Philip wanted more from Jesus
than Mrs. Dobin required of her husband, although Philip had seen Jesus walk on
water, open blind eyes and raise the dead.
Philip was the fourth disciple to
leave all and follow Jesus. But at the Last Supper Philip still hadn't grasped
Who Jesus is.
Philip, along with the rest of the
disciples, forsook Jesus and fled in Gethsemane when the Master was arrested.
But Philip must have eventually
understood what Jesus told him about where He was going, and how he could know
the way to get there. As were the
other disciples (except Judas), Philip was changed by the Resurrection and
Pentecost. His faith was so secure, tradition says Philip gave his life for his
faith.
Philip finally knew Jesus, he knew
the Father, and there was no doubt where he was going.
What to I
have to be like to get there?
Where heaven
is, what it's like, and exactly what we'll do isn't important when you're in
love with Jesus.
We know He'll be there, and as the
Bride of Christ, we, the born-again believers who are the church, don't need to
see the home He's prepared, the joy we'll have, or what we'll do throughout
eternity before we believe his promises that we'll have no more tears and we'll
have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Not long after Carolyn died, one of
her friends had a vision in the middle of the day of Carolyn in heaven.
When my son-in-law, Michael, related
the vision to me, I felt skepticism, although it would have felt good to
believe it.
Carolyn's friend saw a city with
lots of excitement where everyone was busy as if preparing for a great event.
Carolyn was sitting at one of many white grand pianos that extended as far as
the woman could see. The pianists were preparing for something special, that
could have been the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the great celebration that
will occur in heaven, right after the Rapture, the catching away of the church.
My first reaction was "Pianos
in heaven?"
Sure, we'd heard there'd be harps
there. But I thought pianos were so earthly and so attached to mortals.
I assumed, at first, Carolyn's
friend might have seen something heavenly interpreted in earthly terms, if the
vision were, indeed, from God.
But then, I thought, the vision
could be exactly a picture of heaven. Many things we have here have roots in
heaven, such as music.
If God made us in his own image, why
would he not also allow humans to invent and learn about things that He
appreciates enough to allow in heaven?
In the woman's vision, she said Carolyn was playing the piano and she
peeked between the open lid and keyboard and smiled at her.
Nevertheless, I don't know for sure
pianos will be in heaven.
Anyone who tells you what will be
there has no proof outside of what is written in the Bible. Those who have had near-death experiences
who say they've seen heaven, or atheistic psychologists who say it's all
wishful thinking or a change of chemicals in the brain, can argue forever --
but never prove their point one way or the other.
We can't get to heaven without dying
(unless we are living when Christ returns for the church) and until our flesh
is totally dead and we're in that eternal city, we won't know everything about
it.
The same human mind that can't
comprehend a Heavenly Father with no beginning and no end can't seem to grasp
heaven, either.
So we must accept heaven by faith.
