Have you ever day-dreamed or pondered what heaven must be like? Will our family who has gone before us welcome us home at the gate? Will our pets be there? How about our favorite things like fashion, ice cream, Netflix, hiking, and sunflowers?
The answer is yes! Our creator, God, made both the heavens AND the earth. He made us to take delight, experience joy, and express gratitude for such things as feeling like royalty wearing a prom dress, taking warm summer dips in the lake, admiring the bright orange leaves on a crisp fall hike, enjoying a spoonful of your favorite ice cream, binging a favorite Netflix show when we’re under the weather, and this list goes on.
Philippians 4:8 says “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things”. If there are things here on earth that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, we can bet our bottom dollar that these things are in heaven too!
The Bible also says “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and on the earth; Yours is the dominion and kingdom, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all” - 1 Chronicles 29:11.
If heaven is supposed to be a zillion times better than earth, and If God created Earth with such zest, such joy, such meticulous and beautiful design- than we can only imagine how much more effort, time, design, beauty, and amazingness God put into creating heaven.
In his book, Imagine Heaven, John Burke takes us through several people’s accounts of heaven via their near death experiences (aka NDE’s). Several people throughout the book attest in their NDE what heaven was like- full of magnificent color, feelings, sights, people, and yes even pets!
What is so astounding is that these NDEs don’t just account for people of Christian faith, but also people with different religious backgrounds and also people with no religion whatsoever. Some NDE accounts even give insight that we can accept Jesus even if we were not believers on earth. But don’t get too excited- because how we spend our time here on earth greatly reflects how we spend our time in heaven.
Because someone we love is in heaven, there is a little bit of heaven in our home. This statement couldn’t ring more true as my family and I celebrate our daughter Olly Belle’s gotcha day in heaven this month (she was just shy of two years old when she danced into Jesus’s arms in March of 2020). Olly loves all things pink, unicorns, tacos, cotton candy, giggles, and dance parties.
When we imagine her in heaven, we imagine a whole lot of sass, goofiness, giggles, and love. We imagine her in pig tails, riding unicorns through the cotton candy sunsets, giggling all the way with a messy chocolate face and a beaming smile. We know she is healthy, whole, healed, and home. We also know her presence and spirit come beside us day by day- whether it is a beautiful sunset, sunflowers left for us along her path, or the sweet taste of cotton candy ice cream.
You see- heaven really isn’t all that far away from us. Our spirits are forever connected and intertwined with our loved ones and death can never sever those chords. God gives us daily glimpses of heaven - so we know just how wonderful and at peace our loved ones truly are. He also gives us glimpses to assure us that our aches, our trials, and our sufferings are only short term.
If you have loved ones in heaven (recently or long ago, old or young) I want to offer you peace in knowing that heaven is an amazing place. Our friends, family, and pets are all there, living their very best life, enjoying each other’s company, and planning our epic welcome home party when it’s our time to go home.
I pray you take heart in knowing your heart aches, sorrow, and grief are only for awhile (weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning - Psalm 30:5). May you find comfort in the Lord and the people on earth he surrounds you with. And if you are in an able position- take some time today to imagine what your loved ones might be doing in heaven. It might just put a little smirk on your face and flutter in your heart!