HEAVEN

One of my cousins once told me that he wanted to go to heaven; he just did not want to die.  I suppose that it is only natural that if you are enjoying life you would say, “I don’t ever want this to end.”  However, it inevitably does.  Shakespeare’s Hamlet takes a very negative view of death from the perspective of one with no hope of heaven:

“To die,–to sleep;–

To sleep! perchance to dream:–ay, there’s the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. . . .

“But that the dread of something after death,–

The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns,–puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?”

On the other hand, C. S. Lewis represents the Christian view of death very well when he writes, “A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.”  Only those in heaven may truly say, “I want this to go on forever,” with the confidence and joy that it will.  Paul commands us to “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2) and he reminds us that “our citizenship is in heaven.” (Philippians 3:20)

I do not have the skills to write of the joy and happiness the Christian will experience in heaven.  The excellence of heaven is too rich for me to describe.  Richard Baxter acknowledged this when he wrote:

“My knowledge of that life is small,

The eye of faith is dim;

But ‘tis enough that Christ knows all,

And I shall be with Him.”

Indeed, what comfort must fill the soul of the Christian who now possesses Christ in heaven for all eternity?  We were meant to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  Heaven is where we will enjoy Him fully and best.  Heaven will be the final satisfaction of our souls.  The Lord of lords and King of kings calls us to be with Him.