Imagine Heaven with Me

Heaven is far better than you can even begin to wrap your mind around

Take a moment to dream with me. Now, before you do, let me add this disclaimer: I’m going to share with you the images I have in my mind about heaven. But before I do that, I want to remind you of something the Apostle Paul wrote about heaven:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
—1 Corinthians 2:9

Words are inadequate to describe our eternity in the presence of God. And at the same time, our human minds also are unable to conceive of everything God has in store for us. So I’m going to share my imagination with you, but I don’t know that everything in my imagination is accurate or even real.

In fact, I think heaven is far better than I could ever wrap my natural mind around.

Even so, I want to expand your view of heaven and encourage you to think about it in a different way. So allow yourself to contemplate the wonders of heaven with me for a few moments.

The Table and the Mansion

The highlight of heaven is God’s presence. He is at the center and focus of everything in Paradise, the New Jerusalem. As you enter heaven, you immediately join all other believers of all the ages in God’s glorious presence. There you worship Him with a perfect voice. Heaven’s music fills the air with melodies thousands of times more lovely than any sounds you have ever heard. In God’s presence, you experience the fullness of joy as your heart leaps with happiness and delight.

After a million years, you are still worshipping the One who died for you—yet you’ve never grown bored, tired, or distracted. Another million years of worship pass in an instant.

After the second million years in the Lord’s presence, you join your friends at Paradise’s banquet table. Heaven’s angels serve the meal, and you eat the most indescribably delicious food for another 15,000 years. The table conversations are incredible, and fun and laughter fill the room. You eat and eat but you never gain weight. You don’t feel full, become ill, need to take a restroom break. It never even occurs to you that you need to stop. You don’t have to save food for anyone else, because the more you eat, the more food the angels bring to the table.

Then you leave the table and decide to go to your mansion. Only one second later, you arrive at your gorgeous 500-acre estate. At your heavenly home, you will meet all your family for an incredible reunion. One of the angels leaves to gather your loved ones. When your relatives arrive, the angels arrange everything perfectly, and they serve you and your family for another 5,000 years. You eat, play games, share memories, and enjoy each other in an atmosphere of laughter and love.

No one gets hurt feelings or does anything harmful. Everyone is mature, sensitive, godly, loving, and affectionate toward each other. On your back porch there are no ants, mosquitos, or other insects. The sun doesn’t burn your skin, and no one gets injured. You don’t have to pay for anything. In fact, you don’t need money or any other property to trade because everything you want is immediately provided by the angels.

The New Earth

As the family reunion draws to a close, someone suggests going on an adventure. So you leave your mansion with your loved ones and take a 14,000-year journey to explore the new earth. It is spectacularly beautiful. There are no vicious animals. You can immediately travel to any place you want to be. The world is a paradise, filled with amazing thrill after thrill.

You can climb the highest mountain without feeling fatigued or needing oxygen. You can swim under water for 100 years without needing to breathe or feeling tired. No dangerous sharks try to attack you, and nothing can harm you. There are no deserts remaining on earth. You’re never thirsty. You don’t have to wear sunscreen or shield your eyes from blowing dust. There’s no such thing as going to a “bad” place, because God has redeemed every place. Nothing tragic has ever happened anywhere you go. The old earth of sin and corruption is gone.

When your tour of the new earth ends, everyone is pleased and enthusiastic. One of your family members says, “I was exploring the universe with a group of my friends earlier, and we found a galaxy 300 million light years away. It was incredible!” Everyone agrees they would also like to see this galaxy, so you decide to go. One second later, all of you are there. For the next 30,000 years, your group explores that galaxy and its stars. You share great experiences together, seeing things beyond description. Everything you witness is far different from anything you’ve ever seen before, and it’s extremely fun and interesting. Your mind takes in information and understands it. Everything makes sense.

Heroes and Pavilions

Next, you all decide to return to your mansions. With no need for rest, you make a visit to the Hall of Pavilions, where you meet the great men and women of the Bible. They are heroes to you, but they tell you Jesus is the only true Hero. Even so, you’re still in awe of them. All 12 disciples have their own pavilions, and so do the apostle Paul, Mary (the mother of Jesus), King David, Daniel, Esther, and all the other people of the Bible you loved before you ever met them in person. In each pavilion, you meet a new biblical figure, and you spend time talking with them intimately and getting to know them.

In each pavilion, you are able to relive the actual events of the Bible with those people who were there when they happened. It’s a technology beyond anything you’ve ever known. In Noah’s pavilion, you watch him construct the ark and see how God rescued him from the Great Flood. In Elijah’s pavilion, you witness his faith as he trusts God to defeat the prophets of Baal. You get to watch King David fling a stone in the air as God directs it straight to Goliath’s forehead.

Then, you are present as Mary gives birth to Jesus. You watch Him grow up, see Him perform miracles, and listen to His teaching. You linger in the Hall of Pavilions for 40,000 years, seeing fascinating event after event.

The Throne

After these experiences, you have an overwhelming desire to be in the presence of God and worship Him. In the blink of an eye, you are kneeling at His throne. As you worship, He looks straight at you and smiles. Suddenly, you realize an angel has taken you by the hand and is leading you toward the throne.

Now you are face to face with the living God. Immediately, you know He loves you personally. He shows you affection and speaks words of affirmation and blessing over you. You can do nothing other than worship Him for seven million more years. You praise Him with a clear voice, and no distraction or fatigue ever overtake you. Beauty after beauty, glory after glory, and joy after joy fill your days. Every day is more amazing than the day before.

God is infinite, and as the Architect of your heavenly home, He can only make a marvelous Paradise.

Think Differently

I’ll remind you again: This is heaven according to Jimmy. I can’t tell you I got these imagined scenarios straight from the Bible. This is definitely from my imagination, but there’s nothing I have written here that contradicts the Bible.

The purpose for sharing my description is just to mess up your hairdo. I want you to think differently. Heaven is bigger and better than you’ve ever thought or can ever think in this world.

I was trying to lead a friend to the Lord one day, but he said he didn’t want to go to heaven. I asked him where he thought he would go when he died. He wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t heaven. He said he didn’t want to go because he didn’t want to float around on a cloud playing a harp for all eternity.

Does what I described sound like that? Of course, it doesn’t.

I opened this article with words from the Apostle Paul. I want you to read those words again:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
—1 Corinthians 2:9

Do you see what I am saying? The heaven of my imagination sounds amazing, but the reality of heaven is so infinitely wonderful than our hearts—right now—can even comprehend it. This side of eternity, the wonder of heaven hasn’t even “entered into the heart of man.”

Even if my vision of heaven isn’t directly from the Bible, understand that heaven is even better than how I’m describing it here. You won’t experience physical or relational pain. You’ll never again have hurt feelings. We will all be mature and loving to each other.

And we are only a twinkling of an eye away from that experience. You and I are going to a place that’s indescribable, a place with the greatest joy and pleasure you can possibly imagine.

In fact, you can’t imagine it all.

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I write much more about heaven in my book Look Up!

Or if you want to read more about the topic, I recommend Don Piper’s book 90 Minutes in Heaven and Randy Alcorn’s thought-provoking book Heaven: A Comprehensive Guide to Everything the Bible Says About Our Eternal Home.