Young Jonathan had been promised a new puppy for his birthday but had a tough time choosing one at the pet shop. Finally, he decided upon a shaggy puppy that was wagging its tail furiously. Jonathan made his choice, exclaiming: “I want the one with the happy ending!”
For those who do believe in Heaven, its descriptions are, well, heavenly—”Heaven is a safe place.” “Heaven is fun, full of color, filled with angels, a good place to visit and the house of God.” That’s what some kids at St. Ann Roman Catholic School think about Heaven.
And such descriptions are so very kin to the Apostle John’s: “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more. . .” (21:4).
Yet even mature Christians have a tendency to dismiss from their theology what they deem as too fanciful for reason. Wordsworth relates in poetry how the human years obscure the reality of Heaven from our hearts: “Trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home: Heaven lies about us in our infancy! At length the man perceives it die away, And fade into the light of common day.”
We have always been enthralled by a glory of the hereafter. Elaborate visions of Heaven abound in the religions of all ages. The Elysian field of Roman and Greek mythology was the idyllic home for departed heroes and the blessed dead. The perfect climate over the eternally green fields was assured by the breezes of Zephyrus.
Valhalla was the Norsemen’s heaven–a large hall where wounds healed quickly, and meat and battle were readily available. For Muslims, heaven is a place of bliss and sensual pleasure, a place of fresh figs, rivers of honey and streams of clean, sparkling water. Life is lived in palaces with a perfect climate and beautiful marriage partners.
Paradise, the garden of Eden, is a huge study hall, a place of learning, in Judaism. People are about thirty years old, there is no decay and nearly everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, gets in.
Some Negro Christians share a vision of Heaven that is justice and equity, where they share in what had been denied them in a world of oppression. And so the words of the immortal spiritual: “I got shoes, you got shoes, all God’s chillun got shoes. When I get to Heaven gonna put on my shoes; Gonna walk all over God’s Heaven.”
We all have questions about Heaven. What will we do there? Do angels really have wings?
Will we recognize those we had known on earth, and will there be animals in Heaven? These are questions that will be answered for us soon enough. What we do believe is that there is Heaven because of the boundless love of God for God’s children.
Jesus was not a deceiver. Jesus was either a madman, or he was the Son of God. For me, the reality of Heaven is revealed in the simple, yet very profound, promise of Jesus: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you!”
Isaac Watts would give us again to sing with passion those glorious lyrics: “The hill of Zion yields A thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the heav’nly fields, Or walk the golden streets. Then let our songs abound, And every tear be dry; We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground To fairer worlds on high.”
What a wondrous God we have! What a wondrous story we may share: the story with the happy ending.
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