What Will Heaven Be Like?
As a pastor, I am often asked this question. In attempting to answer it, I’ve realized that people are really asking, “What will happen after we die?” On my worst days, I simply want to remind them that I am just as human as they are and have the exact same amount of first hand experience.
But I know it is a deep and important question. And even though I am rarely able to paint a clear enough picture to satisfy the curiosity of the one asking, I learned long ago that it is a question I need to have an answer for, if for no other reason than to begin teaching what I am certain heaven is not. Heaven is not somewhere else. Heaven is not something we are meant to wait around for. It is for this reason that I always begin my response by replacing “heaven” - a word with far too many false connotations and pie-in-the-sky images-with “new creation.”
There are a couple of things that I know for sure about the new creation. I know that Jesus will be there and that it will be a place of perfect peace. I know that it is a place where every part of creation seeks only what is best for the rest of creation, and never simply themselves. After all, peace can only be present when everyone and everything is looked after, understood, and cared for in abundance.
This alone points to how different the new creation will be from the present one we see and experience around us now.
And yet, those who desire the new creation, those who desire heaven, those who pray “Thy Kingdom come on earth…” are called to not only pray for it, but to live it. We are to model Jesus’ self-giving love, just as he taught us to, right now. It is the way the world is meant to be, and the way it will be in the new creation.
In his book Food and Faith Norman Wirzba boldly states that “self-offering love is the form of God’s work and the ‘end’ or goal of our work in the world.”*
With all the talk of finding our purposes in life, or our way to heaven, what if it really is this simple? What if self-offering love is the goal and purpose of our life in the same way that it was Jesus’ goal in his life and in his death? In the resurrection—in the new creation—what if it is only self-offering love that continues to live on, as self-seeking and self-glorification and self-promotion die away for good?
The hard truth is that we are a people, a country, and a world who spend far too much time seeking our own ideas, our own savings, and our own advancement, often at the expense of the rest of creation around us. We believe in ourselves so much more than we believe in the possibilities of the new creation, and the way of One we claim to follow.
This year, so many New Year’s resolutions are once again about creating “a better you.” But I wonder what would happen if, instead, we focused our time and energy on seeking the best for the entire creation around us, from the living soil beneath our feet to the food we eat to the people who help bring it to our tables. What if we sought to make a better world for all people and all creation, even if it means—and it will mean—sacrificing opportunities for our own gain, our own power, our own wealth, our own desires, and our own successes? In some ways, it may mean a resolution of finding a “lesser you,” so that others can find a “better them,” and we can begin to experience the potential of heaven together.
“What will heaven be like?”
Truth be told, my hope of heaven is not any different from my belief of God’s vision for the world. I believe in a creation where people seek first what is best for their neighbors, for the ones they don’t know or understand, for the animals, for the plants, for the water, for the air, for the soil.
Through the power of God’s Spirit, I am certain that we are still those being led by Jesus to put into practice the things he taught us, finding new and exciting opportunities to lay down ourselves so that all others might be lifted up. In this way, all creation will one day feast together in the self-offering love of Jesus with all the peace and celebration that it will bring.
I am convinced that if self-offering love will become our resolve, heaven will begin to not feel quite so mysterious, and not nearly so far away.
Rev. Kevin C. Miller
Way in the Wilderness: A Church Without Walls
*Norman Wirzba, Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating, 2nd Edition (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 257.
