What I'm getting at is this: if we had a real belief in Heaven, it would change everything about the way we see life and experience it. It would take the fear and dread out of death and it would make us look at things completely differently. We would have comfort where there was despair, we'd have confidence where there was fear, we'd have hope where there was grief. Death you see, would lose it's sting. I think this is clearly what the New Testament teaches us about the resurrection of Jesus and about eternal life for all those who are in Christ. This, according to the New Testament would mean that death is no longer the threat, the fear, and the despair that we have thought them to be. In fact, the bible teaches that heaven, the next place for all who are in Christ, is so much more joyous, so much better a life than "earth life" that we would celebrate for anyone who had the chance to go there. Why don't we?
Yesterday I got home and my wife informed me of an elderly woman who had died. My answer, "Good for her. I'm happy for her." I meant it sincerely. Absolutely sincerely. This person had lived a hard life, her husband whom she loved dearly had died a few years ago, and to me, her death sounded like nothing but good news. She is now freed of the challenges she faced in life, she is free in the fullest sense, unto God and into the highest joy. The difficulties her family have borne in caring for her are now concluded. Yes, I'm happy for her.
Okay you say - "but she was elderly and had had a hard life." Yes - true enough, but if Heaven is joy beyond our wildest imagination, we'd be happy for anyone who gets to live there forever; regardless of how long they had lived around here. The bible is clear that Heaven is this kind of joy, with the apostle Paul saying "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, what God has prepared for those who love him." The tone of this is, "think of the best you've ever experienced here and heaven is far better than anything you could imagine." Said succinctly, heaven life is better than earth life. By a long shot.
I feel like the odd man out when I say this kind of stuff. I don't hear anyone else saying it except the apostle Paul, who's confidence and anticipation of heaven was such that he said in so many words, "if I live here on earth, that's okay, but I'd rather be in heaven." We however, cling to earth with a clutching grasp.
Imagine a scenario: In your mother's womb there comes a time where you are informed, "some time in the near future, you are going to make a big move. It's called birth - and you will move from this place to a much much larger and more expansive experience. It's beauty you haven't ever seen, it's experiences that are amazing." To that you might likely reply, "I don't want to do that. I like it in here. It's familiar (you don't know enough to know it's dark and colorless), it's warm, and it's safe. I want to stay here." Alas, you can't. You will be born into a whole new world.
However, when you were in the womb, the idea of birth actually would feel to you like a death - a loss of the familiar. Yet when anyone has a baby, everyone celebrates new life. I think the move from "earth life" to "heaven life" is very much like this. Here we are living in a familiar place and yet there will be a time when we are born into a totally new way of life. For many, anticipating this feels like a death to us, a loss, but in heaven, there will be a welcome and a celebration from everyone who's there - celebrating this new birth. We will have gone from a very limited and limiting experience of life, to a far fuller, far richer, far more joyful one. Just like the move from womb to world.
Add one more angle. In the womb, our sensory experiences are very limited. No vision, no smell, only muffled and indistinguishable sound. Soon however, we will be born into a world of remarkably broader sensory experience - we'll see in vivid beautiful color, we'll hear the most extraordinary music, we'll taste exquisite food. You get the picture. The analogy carries over to Heaven I think. Just as the move from womb to world was a move to incredibly broader sensory experiences, so will the move from world to heaven be similarly spectacular - where it's likely that our sensory experience will be far more amazing than what we've experienced here. And, borrowing some thoughts from Max Lucado, think about the things that develop and grow when we're in our mother's womb that are really of no use to us in that state of life. We are growing and developing eyes, but we don't see light or color. We are developing a nose and sense of smell but we've never smelled anything remarkable. Yes, in the womb, we are developing things that are only for the fuller sensory experience of life after the womb, life outside the womb, life in "the next life." I can only imagine, without knowing, that something similar is happening to us while we live our years on earth. God is growing things in us that we don't really understand, but perhaps they're not for use in this life, but for the fuller experience of perceiving and receiving the fulness of the life we'll live after we're born out of this life and into heaven life.
You can't imagine what these things would be? Similarly, a child at say 6 months of development in its mother's womb couldn't imagine what eyes are for, or what a sense of smell is for. He'll only understand this when he gets to use them, and then he can thank God for them in the next phase of life when he's looking at a beautiful sunset or a view of snow capped mountains with wild flowers all around.
Heaven is our next phase of life. The one that lasts forever and where there is only joy. Jesus' resurrection makes this certain and clarifies that our earthly death is much more like a birth. If we believe this, it will change everything.
