What is heaven anyway?

There is something majestic and special about being on the plane; high above the surface of the earth, seeing colourful clouds in many different shapes and sizes and being surrounded by them. Absolutely amazing!

Every time I look through the window and see the sunset and blue sky, I recall stories where adults tend to tell their children that heaven is above. What parents tell children are usually the same: “If you are good, you’ll go to heaven” but given such challenging task, naturally the next question would be the exact location of heaven. In other words – If I have a possibility to go there. Where is it then? A clever question indeed. This is the moment when many of us have difficulty in answering. Is God floating around the clouds? Way above the cloud? Is there the beginning and end of heaven?

As we grow older, we learn and discover more about the universe, we are not asking questions the same way as children do, and we don’t look for angels jumping from one cloud to other. We learn more about words of God, symbolism in the Bible, faith and hope. Although, I think that we still ponder on the same question now and then anyway. I believe each of us has our own answer in our heart.

By now, I’m sure many of us would have seen the movie Heaven is For Real.

Seeing or listening to stories like this somehow gives us reassurance and can be confusing at the same time. Where is heaven and what is heaven? Why are we so afraid to lose life on earth if life in heaven is greater?

When Jesus talked about heaven, he referred to it as a real, physical place. Twice in John 14:1-6, he uses the Greek word topos, which is translated “place.” He says that there will be “room” for everyone in His father’s house.

From those, who have had a glimpse of being in heaven, we know that it is the reality in which we will meet Jesus face to face which I believe it is indescribable, beyond words can say, and this gives us all the answers we are looking for.

Heaven is definitely different than what we can imagine. But one thing is for sure- it is a place where we meet God and find the whole truth about Him and ourselves – created in His image with an unconditional love.

Have a great week.

Sr Grace