Heavenly in heaven
Heaven is a fascinating place that many of us refer to in an attempt to explain a good experience we have here on earth. Even though we haven’t yet experienced the real heaven, we seem to know it is good. For example, some use the phrase, ‘heaven on earth’ when experiencing something good. A good desert can be defined as ‘heavenly’. What about that blissfully happy marriage which is said to have been ‘made in heaven’. Some people say they will ‘move heaven and earth’ to get something done or something they want; however, truth be told no one can move heaven anywhere. If an act of injustice or corruption takes place, it can be heard ‘that stinks to high heaven’. ‘Heaven forbid’ that we have so many concepts of heaven, that we miss the reality of God’s heavenly home and all that awaits us there.
As spacecraft are sent up from the earth, through the sky to the stars, none have ever reported to have found heaven where God is on the throne, and none are ever likely to, because the Kingdom of God is a heavenly realm, a place where God dwells in His spiritual existence. We can’t fully comprehend that concept right now, and it might be that heaven is not even ‘up there’ above the stars. It’s a fascinating speculation that we intelligent beings might one day physically uncover God’s heavenly abode that He has hidden from view, but it’s never going to happen while we exist on this earthly side of heaven.
When we look into the Bible, we find out quite a bit about heaven. For example, we know God’s throne is there and that Jesus sits on the right hand of God (Ephesians1.20). However, although God has revealed many things about heaven in His Word, there are still other aspects He is withholding until we get there. Perhaps, God withholds this information because we are required to walk by faith and not by sight and should simply look forward to being absent from the body and to be present with the Lord as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5.7-8.
Jesus said, ‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (Matthew 6.19-21).
We might not be able to visualise or understand this heavenly, spiritual realm where God resides, and which one day will be the heavenly home for those who are His. This hope for eternal life in God’s presence can be read about in John chapter 3.1-21 and there is more to come about heaven in the next few weeks to help us better understand what God has prepared for us.
The Bible never imagines or implies that the dead are left circling about our planet in the sky or in outer space in a disembodied haze, but describes a real and aware eternity in God’s immediate presence, for those who have trusted in Christ, this state of being in heaven is without sickness, death, or pain in the presence of God as written in Revelation 21.4.
Heaven exists and according to the Bible, it is the most glorious place imaginable. When we look with wonder to the sky and stars, and consider that if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be like? And, interestingly, heaven is so significant in the Bible that God frames His entire word with passages referring to heaven. In Genesis 1 we learn how the heavens and earth were created. In Revelation 21, we learn how heaven and earth will pass away.
By God’s choosing, we may not know everything there is to know about heaven, but think of heaven as ‘an unknown region, with a well-known inhabitant’.
Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. For ever, amen.
