Heaven

Professor and theologian Shirley Guthrie once wrote: What’s heaven like? Of course, no one really knows. The biblical writers didn’t spend much time on it. They didn’t worry about the future because they understood their own and the world’s future to be in the hands of God…. They focused (more) on living in the present in light of our future hope, knowing that what is going to happen to us, our loved ones and the world will be better than the very best we can imagine in our wildest dreams.”

We still may wonder, what’s that’s like though? Will we see our loved ones? Will we have opportunities to make up for past wrongs?

Jesus tells a parable of a rich man dying and going to Hades and Lazarus dying and going to heaven. In the parable, it seems pretty clear that Lazarus knows and recognizes Abraham. We do get the sense, at least from that passage, that we will know others and that they will know us.

In 1Corinthians chapter 15, Paul says we will have perfect spiritual bodies, and we will bear the image of the Man of Heaven – that is Jesus…

I think about being in the presence of the unconditional love of Christ, and somehow each one of us bearing his image. I have to imagine that the past wrongs and hurts each of us has suffered, and inflicted, will long be forgotten, that the separation and loneliness we have felt in this lifetime will be healed, and that longing in each of us for connection and love will ultimately be fulfilled – overcome by the mercy, forgiveness, and grace we know in Jesus.

In an Easter sermon, my friend Herb Meza once reflected on life after death. He wrote:

“I believe that one day every bruise, every cancer cell, every blind eye, every limp and every lump will be set right. One day every embarrassment and every rejection and every hurt we have suffered will give way to glory. I do not know how God will deal with all the shabbiness, failures, and betrayal. It surely must hurt God, but I know God is loving and forgiving. One day, every moment of hoping against hope will be rewarded.”

None of us knows for sure what heaven will be like. But we do know it is promised. We do get glimpses of heaven on earth here and now, a vision to work toward. And we can trust that God is as good as Jesus said: Loving, generous, forgiving, full of mercy and grace… And we can trust that one day we will be with him – and experience that eternal weight of glory – beyond all measure.

Let us pray: We thank, O God, you for your presence among us, and for glimpses of heaven even here and now. Grant us peace about the future, and tune our hearts to your heart. By the way that we live, by the way that we speak, by the way that we love and give, may we join your Kingdom work – your heaven work; here on earth. We ask in Jesus’s name. Amen.