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What I Wonder About Heaven

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Corinthians 2:9).

I think about Heaven a lot. So many people whom I love with all my heart are there, and I miss them every day.

I wonder what they are doing and if they think about us. I wonder if my brothers are really playing rummy with our dad, the way we say they are. Are they going fishing and is our mom visiting with her wonderful parents whom she had not seen in half a century?

What will Heaven be like? After all, in addition to loved ones in Heaven, there are also uncounted millions of brothers and sisters of all races and tribes whom we have yet to meet. There are “myriads” of angels, and best of all, our wonderful Lord and Savior Himself.

Who would not want to go to Heaven?

My friend Barbara Hardy used to say when she got to Heaven, she was going to ask for a size 10 body.

A pastor friend used to say that in Heaven, he would be able to eat all the lemon ice-box pie he wanted without gaining an ounce.

Joni Eareckson Tada has said that when she gets to Heaven, the first thing she plans to do is ask Jesus to dance. (She’s been a quadriplegic all her adult life.)

Some more serious things I wonder about Heaven include …

Who specifically will be there? So many people are borderline, it seems to me, and I would find it impossible to decide whether they are true believers or not. (I’m eternally grateful it’s not up to me to decide!) I hope everyone is in Heaven, even though I know that’s not going to happen. No one wants anyone to go to hell.

Will we have the option of seeing a replay of our lives here on earth? (And why would we want to?!) The point of allowing us to see the replay would be to show us: a) what God was doing behind the scenes, b) how He used the tiniest deeds and words and gifts to achieve His purposes, c) how even the sufferings and pain were instruments in His hand, and d) a thousand other things we cannot even imagine.

Or would He not do that out of love and mercy? It’s impossible to know.

Will we have classes where the apostles fill us in on “the rest of the story?” I’d like that.

Surely, the ministry of our Lord Jesus on earth is the story of the ages, and nothing rivals it in heaven or earth. Wouldn’t we like to have been there, and wouldn’t it be almost as good to hear it from the lips of those who were?

I’ve told how at one of our family reunions in rural Alabama, about 50 or 60 of us sat around a bonfire in the dark (no electricity at the old home place) and talked about an incident from 1951 when an elderly neighbor was murdered one mile up the road. I brought the subject up, and was enthralled as one after another told what they knew of the incident: My dad participated in the Sunday manhunt for the man eventually caught and convicted, mom told of seeing that man the day before walking up the road with the walking stick that turned out to have been the instrument of death, and my brother Glenn told of skipping school to sit in the courtroom and watch the trial. Perhaps Heaven will be a time of sitting around discussing events from Scripture with the actual characters and hearing their stories.