I had a little glimpse of heaven recently. It wouldn’t have looked like much to the casual observer, just some old friends reuniting after a long separation. But it was really an earthly veneer on a Kingdom moment. It was a foretaste of the one-day homecoming that will bowl us over with the sheer joy of it all.
If we’re really honest, a lot of Christians aren’t that excited about Heaven. Given a choice between Heaven and hell, they’ll gladly choose Heaven, but secretly they wonder why there can’t be a third option. Something with a little less singing. They’ve seen the pictures and the Kingdom looked a little dated. So many puffy clouds and billowing robes and half naked winged cherubs. In heaven, shouldn’t you be able to avoid the imminent wardrobe malfunction that seems to be the lot of all the saints? Few of us are eagerly waiting to be assigned a cloud and a harp.
That picture of Heaven isn’t enough to motivate us, and it certainly doesn’t attract us, draw us closer, or invite us to explore further. Am I really going to be beaten, shipwrecked, persecuted, give up my rights, lay down my life, for a harp?
What we are looking forward to is something more. Something better, richer, fuller. It’s not the streets of gold or the pearly gates. No, it’s a longing to be our very best selves. And to share that best self with the people we love awkwardly, imperfectly now. To understand, and be understood. To be revealed for who we really are and to know that we’re neither judged nor condemned, but loved. Sought after. Welcomed.
Our highest hope isn’t the wealth of Heaven, or the wardrobe. Our highest hope is the promise of perfect unity with God and with others. A place where the pleasure of togetherness won’t ever end. Don’t we want this? To be reunited with our loved ones? To be made one again with our loved One?
The whole purpose for Jesus’ death and resurrection was to restore us to the wholeness, the holiness, that God intended for us from the beginning. The perfection of Eden made permanent. That’s the promise of Heaven. That we will linger in the garden, walk with our Beloved in the cool of the evening, and the snake will never whisper doubt into our hearts. Because we will KNOW that we are loved fully, completely, with a nothing-held-back kind of love.