What Is Heaven Like? What Makes It a Home?

What is heaven like? Who will be there? What will we do? What makes it a home? If we were to gather all the questions people have asked about heaven and the new earth, it would no doubt fill a huge volume.

Heaven on My Mind

While I can’t begin to answer all the questions about heaven and life after death, I can say that heaven is always more on my mind after I’ve said goodbye to a friend or loved one. And as a minister’s daughter and minister’s wife, I’ve attended my share of funerals through the years for some very precious people. The older I get, I the more I realize my life is joyfully pressing toward that day when I will join them.

That happened again recently when a sweet friend passed from death into life. But a couple of days before she took her last breath, I had the privilege of visiting with her briefly. I didn’t offer a goodbye. Instead, I whispered to her, “I’ll see you soon, because we’ll all be close behind.” And those who knew her well and shared her faith could say the same thing.

Time Difference in Heaven

The Bible says a day is like a thousand years to God (2 Peter 3:8). Time in heaven is not counted like it is here on earth. So even if God gave me one year, ten years, 25 years more…I will see her again very soon, along with so many other loved ones who have gone before me.

What Is Heaven Like?

One book I’ve recommended often that makes me so excited about the heaven God is preparing and our eternal residence on the New Heaven/New Earth He will ultimately unveil is the book, Heaven, by Randy Alcorn.  And I’ve suggested another couple of articles below that might help answer some of your questions about what is heaven like and what will it be like for us when we get there. We could all list the things we most look forward to in heaven, and certainly reuniting with those we love is right at the top. But I’m discovering more and more that there’s something else about heaven that makes me anticipate it. Only Jesus and our Heavenly Father know for sure what heaven is really like, and the Bible gives us so many beautiful pictures. One thing is for sure. Heaven will be more, so much more, than we ever thought it would be.

So today may I simply share a poem I wrote that expresses one reason why I’m looking forward to heaven:

Home Is Where God Is

by

Rebecca Barlow Jordan

There’s no place like Home,

And there’s no home like the one

God is preparing for us someday.

We cling to the familiar, not understanding

That a far greater miracle awaits us

When we cross from this life into eternity.

There, Jesus waits to escort His own

Into a place of sweet peace and blessed rest.

There, we can finally see with veil removed

The beauty for which our souls have so longed to know.

There, our loved ones wait with eager anticipation

For us to celebrate with them the joys

For which we were ultimately created.

If we were allowed one glimpse of that place,

Our real home, we would not hold too tightly

To the ones gone before us. Instead, we would

Grieve because we cannot go with them.

Because home, after all,

Is where God is.¹

There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. (John 14:2 MSG)

I looked again and could hardly believe my eyes. Everything above me was new. Everything below me was new. Everything around me was new because the heaven and earth that had been passed away, and the sea was gone, completely. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride on her wedding day, adorned for her husband and for His eyes only. And I heard a great voice, coming from the throne.

¹©2002, Rebecca Barlow Jordan, First published by Warner Press, Inc., for greeting card rights. All Rights Reserved.

You might also like these blog posts I wrote about heaven: A Picture of Heaven – Home at Last, and 25 Things You Won’t Find in Heaven.

If you’d like to know more about what the Bible says heaven is like, check out these articles: What Will Heaven Be Like? and Heaven – What Is It like and Where Is It? And if you are reading this blog post and you don’t have assurance that heaven will be your home one day, please read the blog post I wrote last week: The Day My Life Changed and How Your Life Can Change Too.

My Personal Prayer for You

Lord Jesus, we have so many questions about heaven. We don’t really know what heaven is like. Even the most beautiful descriptions in Revelation and in other places in the Bible can’t do justice to what You have waiting for us. Help us to redeem the time wisely here on earth, living for You, loving You and others in sweet relationship. Thank You for opening the pathway to heaven through your sacrificial death. As we accept Your penalty and forgiveness for our sin and confess You as our Savior and Lord, we can look forward to the home in heaven You are preparing for us. No matter how joyful or how painful our homes have been here on earth, the one You’ve planned for us will be perfect. Thank You for the promise of eternal life and a future that is literally out of this world!

Day-votedly Yours,

Rebecca

What About You?

How have you pictured heaven? What is it you most look forward to in heaven?

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