Opus 2011-110, Heaven Is Outside the Box

How glorious will heaven be.  First, for those of you who are technical theologians, I understand that the word “heaven” is misused.  We will be resurrected in glorified bodies on a New Earth and walk the streets of a New Jerusalem.  We will not spend eternity floating around on clouds, playing harps and flapping our wings.  That picture is from cartoons not from the Bible.

But putting that aside, what will it be like.  I hate to cop out on you but it will be beyond our comprehension.  Start by thinking about the things we take for granted that the Roman Emperors would have sold a kingdom for.  Think about...toilet paper.  This is a modern invention.  Think of extensions of that:  Klennex, Handi-wipes, paper towels, feminine hygiene, the list goes on.  What about the simple zipper?  Think of the I-pod, let alone the computer.  This would all be magic to them and they are just extensions of human creativity. 

Most of us will never come up with anything like these.  Most of us will never have a really creative thought, if we are honest.  Or if we do we won’t remember what it was the next day.  Hold that thought.  Now, how do you expect to comprehend an experience that lasts for eternity and never gets boring, that gives access to the feet of Jesus and is constantly renewed by the glory of an infinitely creative God?

We don’t even have words to substitute for “glorious” when we try to describe heaven.  Get over it.  Some things you have to experience to experience.  Does that make sense?  In a sense, neither will heaven.  Someone once commented that if there is no sex in heaven, he didn’t want to go.  That is like a child saying that if the restaurant didn’t have Chicken McNuggets he didn’t want to go. 

I hope you join me.  It will be quite a ride.

homo unius libri