When I was little I believed what most people believe, that if you went to heaven you spent all your time sitting on white clouds in the sky playing harps.
Not exactly exciting stuff.
And not something that I would really aim for.
Where we spend eternity is not something we really think about until we’re forced to. Going to a funeral definitely triggers the thought of eternity, heaven and hell, but only for a couple hours and then we go back to our everyday life.
Working as an accountant in my late 20’s I occassionally thought of my life when I was older… much older. I was excited about having kids, but not much else. The thought of working until I could retire made me feel quite depressed. I longed to not have to work anymore, but retirement didn’t really bring much to be excited about either, as I would be very near to the end of my life. Then what? Death?
And what about heaven? Was heaven anything to be excited about? White clouds and harps?
What if heaven is so much more?
But hang on… would the Creator of this amazing world really plan something boring to reward people with when selecting them to go to heaven? Hardly!
This world is made up of many intricate creatures and plants and the universe is so vast that it boggles the mind. Imagine someone so creative to have made the intricate world and the vast universe. Just imagine what he has created to reward people who choose him.
The closest I can get to imagining what heaven might be like is what I’ve read in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia book, “The Last Battle”, where their earthly bodies are transformed into bodies that can run like a leopard but not get tired, hot or out of breath. A place where you can swim up waterfalls and can see for miles and zoom in with your eyes to a tree miles away and see the exact detail on each leaf. A place where the fruit on the trees tastes way better than anything we’ve ever eaten before. A place where you can’t feel afraid even if you tried.
Everyone else began to run, and they found, to their astonishment, that they could keep up with him (the unicorn). The country flew past as if they were seeing it from the windows of an express train. Faster and faster they raced, but no one got hot or tired or out of breath.
C.S Lewis, The Last Battle
Akiane Kramarik is an American poet and painter who has painted amazingly intricate and realistic pictures since she was 8 and she says that there is no colours on earth to paint the visions she’s seen of heaven as the colours in heaven are more vibrant. See Akiane’s work here.
I believe that the Creator of this world has something wonderful in store after we die. But to get there we need to choose him and choose to follow the way he’s set out for us. Choose the unique adventure that awaits each person who chooses to trust him.
I’ve been choosing him for the last 10 years, and my life today is filled with so much more joy than before when all I saw was my life here on earth. I have less money now, but feel so much more content. I have to choose to trust him each day to give me what I need. And he constantly surprises me with how he does that.
I want my children to have a longing for heaven too.
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
C.S. Lewis
