Is heaven real?

SING TO ME OF HEAVEN

The story is told of a minister who was called to the home of an elderly man who was terminally ill.  The doctors had given the sick man just days to live, so his wife asked the preacher to come and pray with him.

The minister was met at the front door by the granddaughter, however, who pulled him aside and said anxiously, “Listen, when you visit grandpa, would you say something hopeful?  You know, don’t talk about heaven and things like that.”

Oh, what a shortsighted perspective!  With the naiveté of youth, the granddaughter didn’t realize that heaven is the most hopeful topic of all, and especially to someone who is about to leave this earth.  How awful it would be to approach the end of life with nothing to look forward to!  

The topic of heaven should not be reserved for deathbeds and funerals, however, because it serves as a vital encouragement to our life in the here and how.  For example, it was the apostle Peter who wrote:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

Did you catch that?  Because the resurrection of Jesus demonstrates the reality of our eternal home, we have a “living hope” – which means, heaven gives us hope for living!  The knowledge that Jesus has promised to prepare a permanent place for us, where we can enjoy his company forever (John 14:2-4), keeps our hearts from being troubled when the inevitable difficulties and disappointments of this life assault us.

I don’t believe our churches sing of heaven as much as they did when I was growing up. Could it be that our increasing affluence has made us too comfortable with this world to focus on the next?  Or might we mistakenly feel that thoughts of heaven are appropriate only for the dying?

The longer I live the more I become aware of the brevity, and the brokenness, of this world.  Christians are not spared from trials, heartbreaks, and even persecution. Like the pilgrims of old, I find myself “longing for a better country – a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).  

So sing to me of heaven!  Fire my imagination with lyrics of “a land where we never grow old.”  Remind me, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.” Most of all, when my faith is tested by the trials of this life, assure me that “heaven will surely be worth it all!”

-Dan Williams