Walking Towards the Light vs. Walking the Aisle

I remember a few years back I was helping out my roommate and working with a great group of youth. One night I was teaching and the topic of heaven came up in a question. So as any good youth teacher would do, I decided to jump right in and teach them all they needed to know about heaven. There’s no telling what I taught them, and I hope and pray it was mostly correct, but at the end things took a crazy turn. One girl in the back asked if you could get married in heaven. Of course, with all my theological training, I gave her the straightforward answer I figured was right, “No!” I went on to explain that it wouldn’t matter because you’ll be in heaven worshiping Jesus and that would be fully satisfying, and you wouldn’t worry about anything else. Well, I figured I had done a great job dealing with that one when she began crying out loud. Of course this left me dumbfounded. I immediately replayed the last few minutes in my head and was sure I hadn’t said anything to make her cry, so I wrapped everything up and dismissed the group so I could handle this new situation. When I asked her why she was so upset her answer blew me away. She said, “If I die before I get married then I will be single for all of eternity.” This was coming from a 14 year old, and I had no clue what to say next. The whole “Jesus will be your boyfriend” thing did not seem like it would work.

While the thought is funny to me, it is, in all truthfulness, very sad. You see, her view of heaven was so messed up by what things are like on earth that she simply couldn’t grasp how great it would be. She was associating heaven with a worship service at her church. And if we’re all honest, many times two hours is all we can handle, much less eternity. For her, that was worship. So the thought of doing that forever paled in comparison to getting married. She had, as I think many girls do, a grandiose view of her wedding. In her mind her wedding was the biggest and best event she could imagine. Being in heaven was maybe on the list of things she wanted to do, but it was certainly not tops.

Unfortunately, if we’re honest, I think many of us feel the same way—not about the wedding maybe, but about heaven. Our view of relationship with Christ and eternal worship of our Creator doesn’t invoke the same excitement as going to Disney World, bungee jumping, watching the Super Bowl, seeing “Dark Knight” at the IMAX, or taking a vacation to Hawaii. We’ve seen and tasted those things before. We’ve heard the stories and read the reviews. We know people who’ve done it and then told us about it. But heaven is different. Honestly, has anyone sat down with you over a cup of coffee and discussed his or her past few years hanging out with Jesus, or worshiping with David? Because heaven is so much more than we can comprehend, we try to describe it on our terms using things we do know as comparison, doing heaven a great disservice. There’s simply nothing on this planet or in this life that will compare to our eternal destination. I’ve been to Hawaii, and I think it may be close, but even that’s not really comparable.

These are the thoughts I was having as I studied what would happen when Jesus comes back. He’s going to bring a different life with Him. We will finally be able to see clearly, and we will not deal with darkness again. I can’t even begin to imagine it honestly, but I like that. If I can experience wonder and amazement in this fallen world, how much greater will heaven be? If I can see a sunrise peaking out above a volcano and then turn around and see magnificent waves crashing against the white sand, how much greater will heaven be? If I can experience God’s love and grace, forgiveness and mercy, and know joy here, how much greater will it be there? So the question is, “What will heaven be like?” My answer, I don’t know. But I do know it will be greater than anything imaginable by my little brain, so I’m good with that. What about you? What are your thoughts on heaven? We know the glorious ending to the story, so let’s allow that excitement and joy to impact how we live each day. Join the conversation!