Today’s great weather reminds us how beautiful Heaven must be! We know that there must be rainy days. Without the rainy days, we wouldn’t have beautiful trees, flowers, or food. Those rainy days help us appreciate the warm sunny days.

The same is true with life and eternity. This world helps us to look forward to Heaven because we know this world has no beauty to compare with future glory and because we know that this life is a type of rainy day to help up prepare and appreciate Heaven even more. So on this beautiful day, we wonder what will Heaven be like?

There are some things we don’t know.

There are just some things we don’t know. “The secret things belong to God” (Deuteronomy 29:29). The incredible imagery that we read in Revelation isn’t meant to give us a physical description of our eternal abode. Rather the images are displaying spiritual truths. So there are some things we just don’t know.

This type of ignorance isn’t a bad thing. Perhaps we are “left in the dark” so that we can wonder and anticipate. What information we do have are “signposts into a fog”. Even our hymns display the wonder we have in anticipating Heaven. The hymn “Beulah Land” gives voice to our hearts:

“I’m kind of homesick for a country/To which I’ve never been before…/Beulah Land I’m longing for you/And someday on thee I’ll stand./There my home shall be eternal./Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land.”

One of my favorite hymns is “Hallelujah! We Shall Rise”. We love these songs because of the hope, expectation and wonder of Heaven they express.

There are some things we can know.

The best thing is that God will be there. Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you…to receive you unto myself” (John 14:2-3). We still have the promise, “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). I want to see the Lord. I want to be with him.

The best other thing is that there is a place for me, my family, and my friends. Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). He is my Savior and he has a home for me and I have the opportunity to enjoy eternity with those who mean the most to me.

The other best thing is that things will be different. Paul told us the “suffering of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Yet here on earth we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). We look forward to the comfort of the new heavens and new earth when “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be  no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

I am thankful to know how to get home.

With such a great opportunity, we would hope for an open door. Jesus is that door (John 10:9). When He promised Heaven, He also said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). He defeated sin and death and opened the door to a bright future  here (John 10:10) and beyond (1 Corinthians 15:57).

This resurrection to eternal life is possible because we have already been raised spiriutally in baptism (Romans 6:4) and we look forward to being raised physically (Romans 6:5).

Finally, I want to go home.

We want things to be better. We want to be rid of physical and emotional problems. We want to not fear suffering and the consequeinces of sin. We want to be somewhere we have never been before. We long for Heaven. So we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus”!