Saturday, November 5, 2011

What Will Heaven Be Like?

Questions are not uncommon when our two nephews come for a visit. Now seven, they have been asking us "stumpers" for years.

I remember a friend who was telling me that he thought that he had a good grasp on the concept of the Trinity. "Then," he said, "My five year old began to ask me questions." If you want the depth of your knowledge to be tested, try to answer the questions of a small and curious child.


Fortunately, Nadine and I have been able to slip by some of Sam and Elijah's inquiries by simply saying, "That's a good question for your dad." It turns out that the same thing is going on in Weston's Mills where their dad sometimes says, "That's a good question for Aunt Nadine or Uncle Bryan." Ultimately we are all better for the questions.


Something we all have probably wondered and still don't know is this, "What will heaven be like?" It is an impossible thing to fully understand or explain.


Paul put it like this in the letter we know of as 2 Corinthians.
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. 2 COR 12:2-4


So, until we get there, we just won't really know... not fully. Our hopes and general ideas about heaven are but whispers of the splendor of what awaits us on the other side.
Recently as I have been searching for a set of lost keys (anyone seen a Ford fob with a remote starter attached?), I have found comfort in the fact that in heaven, no one will ever lose their keys! In fact, we won't even need anything locked or secured. 


That alone is cause for pause.