Dwight Moody, the great evangelist, was the Billy Graham of the late nineteenth century. He tells a story in one of his books about a young girl whose mother was deathly sick. A neighbor took the child next door for the mother so that the young girl would not watch her mother die. The neighbor did not even allow the child to attend her own mother’s funeral. Finally, the girl was allowed back in her home. She ran from room to room, looking for her mother. But when she was told that her mother had passed away, she cried out to the neighbor, “Take me back to your house! I don’t want to be here if my mother isn’t here.”
Moody concluded, “It wasn’t the home that made it so sweet to the child. It was the presence of her mother. And so it is not heaven alone that is attractive to us. It is that Jesus, our loving Savior, is there.” Whatever we do in heaven, we will be doing it with Jesus.
For one thing, we won’t be doing anything evil or sinful. In this present life we sometimes lie, cheat, are greedy, gossip, and criticize others. The book of Revelation lists several of the many devastating things that are totally absent from our experience in heaven and the new earth (21:4; 22:3, 5): death, mourning, weeping, pain, disappointment, failures, and the curse on nature and the earth (like weeds in our garden and the death of animals). So whatever we do, it will be done in happiness and joy. Many good fairy tales end, “And they lived happily ever after.” That’s really a description of heaven, not earth.
Being around Jesus will be more exciting than we can imagine. Jesus said there would be laughter in heaven too. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke 6:21). Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, once said, “If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there.”
For all eternity, heaven will be a continuing experience of new adventures that will bring us into community and unbroken friendships with others. Mark Twain said facetiously, “What a man misses mostly in heaven is company.” He was far from the truth. We will make friends with millions of people in heaven, one by one, without the worry of conflicts or estrangements. They will become like intimate family members or best friends. There will be no issues with quirks and idiosyncrasies we’ve had on earth. No shyness, embarrassments, or fears of looking bad. No inadequate articulation, no speech inadequacies or impediments, no thoughts of being unattractive, too tall or too short, too fat or too thin.
God knows all things and is infinitely creative. He will never stop creating. It’s part of who God is—the Creator. He created the world with its millions of intricate creatures, peoples, and plants. In the future, he will create a new heaven and a new earth. We have been made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–27). Our very nature is to be creative too. Life in heaven will continue this creativity. The artist on earth will create art in heaven that will give glory to God. We will join in worship as we see her artwork. The musician in this life will continue to create new music in heaven with which we will sing praises to our God. The musicians will be unable to exhaust the possibilities of new music for all eternity. New instruments with new musical sounds will be invented regularly.
Heaven will involve eternal discovery and learning. So there will be eternal opportunities for the scientist and others to discover God’s creations and lead us in worship of God’s marvelous powers and wisdom. Learning will be inexhaustible and unending. Teachers will be needed to explain to others God’s never-ending phenomena as they are discovered. Routine excitement about new heavenly discoveries will make the thrill of our newest technological toy on earth seem pathetic.
Above all, we will worship God and Jesus in heaven, often with singing. In heaven, God and Jesus will be the center of attention. Have you ever looked at a sunset and marveled at God’s handiwork? What was that feeling like? Awe, amazement, wonder! That’s what it will be like to continually honor and worship God in heaven. Some worship will be directed and formal; some will be spontaneous and informal. In heaven, we will have everything we want, and we will want everything we have. In heaven, we will do everything we want, and we will want to do everything we do. For this, we will praise God.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
Psalm 16:11; Isaiah 51:11; 55:12; 65:17–18; Zechariah 2:10; Matthew 25:14–30; Hebrews 12:22–23; Revelation 5:13; 22:3