What will heaven be like? As I pondered that question this verse of Scripture came to mind to me today…
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:18-25 ESV
Let me tell you where it came to mind and why…
In the summer of 2022 my wife and I were being spontaneous. This is fueled 50% by my crazy ideas and 50% by her willingness to do something crazy with me. In the midst of spending a long, hot summer in North Africa we thought about taking a few days rest together. There’s small local airport nearby with charter flights to various places (it was quite interesting to see the eclectic list). So, on a whim we booked a flight the next day to…Luxembourg of all places. I’m not sure I’d heard of Luxembourg much less had ever been there. We packed light and headed out for our trip. We just booked a hotel the first night and thought we’d improvise from there (also my crazy idea). For the second night I pulled up my handy dandy Marriott app (status is helpful sometimes) and picked the closest hotel to our location (ironically there are no Marriott properties in the entire country of Luxembourg). The next morning we head out to the Marriott hotel which was an hour away and across the border in Germany.
We didn’t have to stop or have our passports stamped or anything like that. The road signs in German did just fine in letting us know we had left French-speaking Luxembourg. We diligently did our high-speed marriage therapy as Shawna navigated on the iPhone GPS while giving instructions to me as a dodged cars and tried to keep us from crashing our little Mini Cooper rental. We actually did pretty well and arrived at the hotel in good spirits.
We pulled up to the ‘hotel’ and were speechless. It wasn’t a hotel, it was a… castle. I’ve been to nice hotels before. But, based on the affordable rate and how easy it was to book I was really taken a back. The gorgeous green garden lawn out front was bigger than most hotels. I found a place to park and we started the long, windy walk to the front door. I didn’t know it was the front door because of some gaudy sign. The reason I knew it was the front door was the red carpet lining a staircase that literally called out to me to climb it.
I entered the ‘lobby’ which really felt like walking into Bruce Wayne’s personal library. A man at the desk kindly poured us some champagne and asked us to wait for the tour. We were given a tour of some options we had for rooms. Shawna enjoyed the tour more than the choice of rooms which was hard since they were all so quaint and interesting. I pulled out my executive decision skills, chose the room, and we were on our way. As we were rounding the corner hallway to our room I noticed a sign for a ‘wine tasting’ at 5pm sponsored by the winemaker himself who owns the vineyard. I leaned back to the hotel clerk and asked him if we could attend. He smiled and said that he had already taken the liberty of signing us up. 🙂
After a few hours of me taking some work conference calls and Shawna going for a workout we met in the wine cellar for the tasting. The gentle natured winemaker named Martin (who spoke 4 languages) was there awaiting his novice tasters to educate them on the finer things of life. With each bottle and taste he described the care given to the process, the respect he gave the land he owned, and the best ways for us to experience the fruit of the land with every sense God has given us. He gave us a card to take notes. I wrote down the words and phrases he was using to describe wine. What I found interesting is that all those words could describe any aspect of life. God described His promised land as ‘flowing with milk and honey.” This winemaker, a great, great grandson of Adam described the fruit of his land as “aromatic, flavorful, salty, mature, elegant, complex, full bodied” and more. As we was describing the perfect way to experience each grape I leaned over to Shawna and whispered with a smile, “Can you believe this!?!? We were invited to a wine tasting sponsored by the winemaker, in a wine cellar, in a castle, built at the base of a vineyard…in a place we’ve never been.” I tried to ham it up a bit as a tried to express my emotions of joy and surprise and wonder with each qualified commentary on our reality. She smiled back at me and chuckled in disbelief too.
That evening we arrived on the beautiful terrace on the south wing of the castle. Other guests from all over the world were arriving for dinner as the sunset was splitting the hills in the distance between the yellow highlight of the sun and dark green shadow of the shade. The river was entertaining us with boats going by and people walking the trail alongside. Up the hills we could stare in wonder at the perfect rows of grapevines that would be harvested by hand in just a month. Massive German killer bees were flying around the terrace just to make things interesting. One came over with his buddies to take a look at our meal and actually bit me. Our fellow international guests were having a laugh at our expense as we stood up to try and avoid the next bee sting. Shawna and I were laughing at ourselves as we did the best “look out for the German killer bee” dance. A nice waiter came out to take our order and served us our full course meal. It was truly the perfect evening.
So why did that phrase “all creation groans” come to mind to me after all this (beside the fact that I’m a right-brained, mystical, spiritual, tortured soul attacked by metaphors on a daily basis)? Why did I whisper out loud to myself “all creation groans?” I think it came to mind because for just a moment, and perhaps the first moment I could recall ever in my life, it wasn’t groaning around me, at all. In that surprising moment I felt such a mix of emotions, even searching for new ones I’d never felt or mixing together some I often feel. I felt extreme guilt since we had left poverty in Africa for this brief reprieve in Europe. I felt a peace I’ve never felt before surrounded by this magnificent place. And I felt a longing for a time and place when this could actually be the reality forever, for all people, ‘for all creation.’
A little background might help. I grew up as an evangelical Christian. And what I learned about heaven could be summed up with a few words and a ton of assumptions. I think this place made me question the over-simplified version I had come to assume. When I was growing early as a Christian I was taught that we really don’t know what heaven will be like and there’s just not much in the Bible about it. I was told that we’d be at rest and worshipping God night and day. Many of my friends and I conjured up images of a 24/7 worship concert. We dutifully went along with our teachers not wanting to tell them that this sounded like it might get old after a thousand years or so. And now, here at Schloss Lieser, “a historic German castle dating from the 19th century…now beautifully restored,” I considered and questioned all the assumptions that I’ve made. I’ve assumed in heaven there would be no eating, no playing, no working, no creativity, nothing for us to do. I was taught that God has done everything and would simply welcome us to our assigned mansions and we will just ‘be’ there. But, Jesus, in his earthly ministry was the winemaker at the wedding feast. In His resurrected, glorified body He ate fish with fishermen. And He walked with 2 disciples scratching His head that they didn’t ‘see’ Him in Moses and the Prophets.
This makes me think that perhaps there’s more about heaven in the Bible than I have been seeing or assuming. What have I missed in the story? I was looking so hard for the bullet points on Heaven maybe I missed the fact that perhaps the whole Bible is about Heaven and Earth and how a new Heaven and a new Earth will come together in the final act. When God makes something ‘new’ maybe we have glimpse from what is ‘old’…like rivers lined with trees that bear fruit (Adam and Eve), vineyards (Noah), families who work and live and feast together (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph), an annual cycle of celebrations and spiritual events in a land flowing with milk and honey (Moses), Castles and Temples (David and Solomon). This makes me think of the old snapshots and glimpses in the Bible and a few prophecies of what ‘new’ might look like. As I’ve taken a closer look at Scripture recently, I’ve wondered if my early picture of heaven was not inaccurate per se, but perhaps woefully incomplete. Take a look with me at 3 snapshots from God’s Big Story.
In the beginning, He creates everything we can see out of nothing. Then he places human beings in charge of…everything…to ‘be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth’. He doesn’t say “hang out here…everything’s done for you”. No, He gives them, as image-bearers work to do…in a perfect place. Huh? Why do we have to work in a perfect place? And, yes, we know what happens…Adam and Eve spoil it, defile it, wreck it, until things get so bad that God literally regrets his creation. All creation is groaning, not just people. I don’t know that I considered that the fall of man is really the ‘fall of all creation’. And since then the groans of creation have created so many things we simply accept as reality, things like: earthquakes, tidal waves, typhoons, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, sandstorms, droughts, floods, plagues, infestations, and more. It stands to reason that none of these things will exist in the eternal state. When I grew up I didn’t pay much attention to environmental appeals. I was taught that those liberal ‘tree huggers’ were not worth our time and we should focus on more ‘spiritual’ things (look up Gnosticism if you get a chance). Then I meet this winemaker in Germany who’s the clearest thing I’ve ever met to someone fulfilling Adam’s original calling: being fruitful, multiplying, and subduing the earth. Huh?!? Could it be that deceptively simple?!? Will there be vineyards in Heaven? Winemakers? Fine wine? Banquets where people drink that wine?
The story of the covenants in the Bible (to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David) culminate in a beautiful ceremony of dedicating The Temple of God in Jerusalem.
“Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant.”
1 Kings 8:54-56
So here we get another heavenly glimpse: A city. A Temple. A promise fulfilled. All at peace. But, they didn’t understand this to mean the story was over. At that point in Israel’s story they were at the top of a mountain, literally and figuratively. All was right. Things had just begun. They could have used that mountain top to fulfill Adam’s calling and build vineyards and bless the world. Or they could choose to wreck it all over again. But, regardless, they aren’t the heroes of the story. God is. And our Hero is showing us what happens when He makes things right: a celebration, a capital city at the center of it all, nations coming to be blessed. When I was standing in this castle I wondered why it felt so awkward. I think because I’ve lost (or never had) real hope that I could live in one, that I could actual be a member of a kingdom and actually serve a King in that kingdom. I grew up in a republic with 50 independent states driven by a democratic zeal. I honestly don’t know what a kingdom is really like. I was taught to scoff monarchies across the world as living in the dark ages. I vote in presidential elections. We don’t have any practice going to coronations. And I don’t have any examples of working in service of a King. But working for the King is right there in the Bible.
The very Son of God, the perfect God/Man…worked. He worked as a carpenter. He worked as a teacher. He worked as healer. And He rested from His work. And, yes, He invited His followers to work and to rest with Him and learn at His feet (ref. Martha and Mary in Luke 10). And, in between those times of rest, He sent out his followers to work, to heal, to preach. After the Ascension they set about their work in spades. They recruited Deacons to work as administrators as the church grew in number and maturity.
Now imagine the eternal state when Peter arrives. His last memory is being crucified upside down (as church tradition states). Do you think Jesus said to him in glory, “well done good and faithful servant” (ref parable of talents)? Likely. Is it possible Peter said, “I am your unworthy servant. I have only done my duty” (ref. The parable of the plowing servant). Likely. Do you think Peter bowed and worshipped His Lord whom he had not seen in decades? Likely. And then what next? A big sofa for Peter to sit on as he watches Angles fly around to bring messages or fight demons? Did Jesus say, “The Holy Spirit still has many souls to save on earth. Just wait here in Heaven until the job is done and then you’ll see the rest of your friends.” Sounds comical? Even irreverent? Yes. But if I were to test my silent assumptions (which is what this article is all about) that’s actually what I have believed about the eternal state.
Why do I assume that after a life on earth of great work and significance that they apostles essentially retired, idle in heaven (that’s why many Americans are keeping their fingers crossed about golf courses in heaven)? We have only glimpses of a few recorded appearances of saints who had already died. Samuel appeared to a seer to rebuke Saul. Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus on the mountain. I wonder what they are doing now? Were those the only 2 times God called saints out of heavenly retirement to do something? John clearly says that if everything Jesus did was written down there would not be enough books in the whole world to contain them. How much more logic could be applied to the works of the apostles in this life or the next? Sound a little crazy? Probably. And so are many of the silent assumptions I make about God as I superimpose my tiny frameworks around His divine economy.
So we’ve looked at the beginning, the Garden of Eden. We’ve looked at the middle, a Kingdom on a mountain. We looked at the ‘work’ of the Disciples. What does the Bible tell us about the end?
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Rev 21:1-4
What if ‘heaven’ is ‘heaven and earth’ without the influence or effects of the hell? No fever. No cancer. No rotten teeth. No warts. No high cholesterol. No sunburns. No migraine headaches. No obesity. No starvation. No mental health disorders. No sex trafficking. No pandemics. No addictions. No infomercials. No wars. I could go on and on. We are wondering what a new Jerusalem coming from Heaven to a new Earth could be like because we might have come to expect hell on earth and lost any hope or imagination what it could be like without that evil in place. And what if, without the stain of sin, we don’t just sing 24/7 (but I’m sure there will be singing)? What if we do exactly what God told Adam to do when all things were actually new when He said, “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth?” What if we will grow vineyards and drink the wine and sing and dance? What if we will play? What if we will travel? What if we will work? Not by the sweat of our brow and among thorns and thistles of a cursed creation. But what if we will work without the pains of the fall? What if all of creation is redeemed as along with us? What if creation is saved along with us? The rotted trees? The dry, cracked dust bowls? The polluted waters? The smog-filled skies? What if it’s a package deal and this awesome new city comes down into a fully restored creation? No tornadoes. No oil spills. No mildew. No poison. No lions, tigers, and bears (‘oh my’) to be afraid of. Not even a bee sting during dinner?
What will Heaven be like? I don’t know for sure. But, why couldn’t heaven come to earth just as Jesus taught us to pray? And what if those who have left us in the baptism of death and entered into enteral rest can see this reality? What if they are not in some sort of spiritual coma or just singing a chorus a thousand times a day? What if they are active? What if they are talking to each other? What if the communion of saints are praying for us right now? What if God uses them along with His holy angels in ways just like (or greater) that he used them in fallen earth? What if it’s not some huge secret and mystery? What if we’ve clouded our definitions of heaven with our own assumptions, lack of faith, lack of hope, and lack of imagination? We already know what creation is like on an utterly depraved earth with poverty, human trafficking, starvation, and genocide. What will it look like if heaven comes down and it doesn’t groan anymore?
This is the part where I assume smarter theologians will come along to correct my logic and poke a ton of holes in my mindless wandering. So, I’ll wind this inspired pontification down. Here’s a simple question: “If creation has been groaning, why does it groan; and what does it hope for? To be burned up? Or to be redeemed along with all of us? Think about it. Do we want to leave this place and go up to heaven with Jesus? I’m sure the right answer is ‘yes.’ Do we want Jesus to come back from heaven and make ‘all things new.’ I’m sure the right answer is ‘yes’.’ But, I confess that I rarely pray that. I’ll bet for every ten times I ask Jesus to just ‘take me away’ from the misery I see or experience I may not even ask one time…sincerely…with all my heart… for His “Kingdom to come!” My faith is not that big, my hope is not that clear, my love is not that strong.
But, being in this place has changed my heart. I remember that cool morning, the day after our dinner, sitting at the foothills of a German vineyard in a place I never knew to hope I could be. Paul says that “we hope for what we do not see.” Yes, this is true. And yet my eyes have seen a glimpse of what I could hope for.
I still see all the groaning now and it continues to cloud the eyes of my heart. Creation is groaning in the dusty, impoverished streets of North Africa (my summer home). Creation is also groaning in the privileged, suburban boulevards of Little Rock, AR, USA (my permanent home). But, creation seems to be singing at this beautiful little castle nestled in the hills of Germany. What could the rest of the earth look like without all those curses we see today? What will it look like? Like Heaven? Like this moment I’m experiencing right now?
What does Jesus say? Behold, I am making all things new (Rev 21:5) He doesn’t say “I’m erasing everything and making it again”. He doesn’t say “I’m making all things…again”. What if heaven is when He takes everything and makes it new? Then creation will not groan. It will produce the fruit it was always intended to yield. It will shine and sing and dance. And maybe we can join in too as His image bearers and His crowning jewel of creation.
I’m thankful I had this brief reprieve from the groaning so I can be hope more for our longings.
