No Rivalry Between Christ And Heaven

No Rivalry between Christ and Heaven

They were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

— Hebrews 11:16

Thy presence makes our Paradise, and where Thou art is Heaven.^a

— JOHN MILTON

Is it wrong for Christians to daydream about what Scripture tells us awaits us on the other side of death’s door? Is it wrong to anticipate entering into a world without suffering and pain, and having a body and mind that work again, and being with loved ones from whom we’ve been separated? In other words, is it really a good thing to think about Heaven?

Any bride in love with her husband wants to be with him more than anything. But if he goes away for a time to build a beautiful place for her, won’t she get excited about it? Won’t she think about it and talk about it? Of course she will. Moreover, her husband wants her to! If he tells her, “I’m going to prepare a place for you,” he’s implying, “I want you to look forward to it.” Her love and longing for the place he’s preparing—where she will live with her husband—is inseparable from her love and longing for him.

Some people erroneously assume that the wonders, beauties, adventures, and marvelous relationships of Heaven must somehow be in competition with God, the one who created them. But God has no fear that we’ll get too excited about Heaven. After all, the wonders of Heaven aren’t our idea, they’re his. There’s no dichotomy between anticipating the joys of Heaven and finding our joy in Christ. It’s all part of the same package. The wonders of the new heavens and New Earth will be a primary means by which God reveals himself and his love to us.

Picture Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve says to Adam, “Isn’t this place magnificent? The sun feels wonderful on my face, the blue sky is gorgeous, and these animals are a delight. Try the mango—it’s delicious!”

Imagine Adam responding, “Your focus is all wrong, Eve. You shouldn’t think about beauty, refreshment, and mouthwatering fruit. All you should think about is God.”

Adam would never say that, because in thinking about these things, Eve would be thinking about God. Likewise, our enjoyment of what God has provided us should be inseparable from worshiping, glorifying, and appreciating him. God is honored by our thankfulness, gratitude, and enjoyment of him.

Thinking about Heaven shouldn’t be viewed as an obstacle to knowing God but as a means of knowing him. The infinite God reveals himself to us in tangible, finite expressions. Next to the incarnate Christ, Heaven will tell us more about God than anything else. Some people have told me, “I just want to be with Jesus—I don’t care if Heaven’s a shack.” Well, Jesus cares, and the place he’s preparing for us is no shack. He wants us to anticipate Heaven and to enjoy the magnificence of it.

Every thought of Heaven should move our hearts toward God, just as every thought of God will move our hearts toward Heaven. Paul could tell us to set our hearts on Heaven, not just “set your hearts on God,” because to do one is to do the other. Heaven will not be an idol that competes with God; it will be a lens by which we see God more clearly.

If we think unworthy thoughts about Heaven, we think unworthy thoughts about God. That’s why the conventional caricatures of Heaven do a terrible disservice to God and adversely affect our relationship with him. If we come to love Heaven more—the Heaven that God portrays in Scripture—we will inevitably love God more. If Heaven fills our hearts and minds, God will fill our hearts and minds.

Realizing all this can help us appreciate the sentiments behind a depiction of the believer’s death that I sometimes read at memorial services:

I’m standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She’s an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and the sky come down to mingle with each other. And then I hear someone at my side saying, “There, she’s gone.”

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side. And just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There, she’s gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming, and there are other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!” And that is dying.^b

Do you think Jesus wants you to long for Heaven and look forward to being there with him? Why not thank him now for the price he paid to secure your place in Heaven?

Lord, help us to want more than anything to be with you. As a bride longs to live with her groom, help us desire to live with you. Help us not to feel guilty for looking forward to living in the place that Jesus promised he would prepare for us. As your people have always longed for a better country, a heavenly one, help us to long for what awaits us on the other side of death. For those facing death and for those whose loved ones may be about to die, I pray that you would give them grace and mercy. Help us to believe and be comforted by the truth that just as those here will be saying, “She’s gone,” those in a better world will be saying, “Here she comes!”