Many people are confused when it comes to heaven. Most people, even some Christians, view the thought of heaven as an intrusion into their lives. After all, why focus on heaven if you haven’t even been to Europe? Many single people try to skirt the issue, saying, “Lord, please, don’t take me to heaven until I get married down here on earth.”
Why the hesitation? Why the reluctance? It’s because people are confused. There are some of us who seem to think that heaven is a big pie-in-the-sky existence, where you just flap your wings and float from cloud to cloud.
Some even say, “It’s going to be so boring. How can it be exciting when you know you are going to make a hole-in-one every time? We’ll never miss a basket, never have a conflict. It’s going to be so boring.” That’s one extreme. The other extreme is so secularized that it is totally unlike anything God ever had in mind.
The Scriptures do not tell us everything about heaven. In fact, all we have in the Scriptures are glimpses of heaven. But those glimpses are enough to let us know that heaven is where we want to go.
We learn in 2 Corinthians 5:1 that “if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” God has prepared us a home in heaven.
The same God who created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1 is the same God who promises us a new heaven and a new earth at the end of time (Revelation 21:1).
The Old Testament saints mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 were living on the earth, but they had their sights set on heaven. When you become passionate about heaven, as they were, you will be fulfilled in history – no matter what you face. The reason why many of us are unhappy on this earth is that we do not have a proper view of heaven. Heaven is pulsating with life, so to be passionate about heaven is to be fulfilled while waiting to go.