WHAT WILL WE DO IN HEAVEN?

What Will We Do in Heaven?                    

            "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.