Beyond cloud nine: Why heaven will be better than you imagine

God has revealed to us through his Son, through the Holy Spirit, and through scripture so many reasons why we should be excited about heaven.

Let’s look at a few reasons why we have so much to lookforward to.

1. Jesus will be there.

This is the best news there is. Jesus will be there. I can’t imagine what it will be like to finally see Jesus. To be able to kneel at his feet. To be able to look into his eyes and feel a love that nothing on earth has prepared us for.

I think of friends of mine who are going through very hard things right now; perhaps you are there as well — cancer, divorce, struggling to pay your bills, chronic illness. Every day must feel like a battle. But I know for sure that the moment they, the moment you, look into Jesus’ eyes, all the pain will be gone in a second.

I’ve always thought that we’d cry when we first see Jesus, but now, I wonder if it’s more likely that we’ll laugh. Will we laugh with pure, unadulterated joy until tears run down our faces because every messy piece of our lives has fallen away? We’ll be home, and we’ll be loved, and we’ll be whole, and we will join in worshiping Christ, the Lamb of God, the King of Kings forever.

2. Your citizenship is there.

Not only will you finally see Jesus, but you will also be a citizen of heaven. You’ll belong there. You’re not visiting, your heavenly passport says, you are home, this is your country.

When I first came to America, I had a green card. It allowed me to live and work permanently in the United States. Then I married Barry, and we had our son, Christian. So Barry and Christian had U.S. passports, and I had a United Kingdom passport. That was fine until we were watching a movie one day about a plane being hijacked. The hijackers separated the U.S. passport holders from the rest of the passengers and made those who were not U.S. citizens get off the plane. That’s all it took. The next morning, I began the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. No one was going to be putting me off the plane, leaving my family behind.

That illustration is far from perfect, but what I want you to know is that when you are a citizen of heaven, you belong there; no one can or ever will ask you to leave.

“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives” (Philippians 3:20).

3. Your friends and family are there.

One of the most amazing things about being in heaven will be that we’ll experience the greatest reunions we’ve ever known. We’ll get to see friends and family who have trusted in Jesus and who’ve gone before us — and not as they were but as they are without any pain or sorrow, without anxiety or depression or any kind of sickness. There will be no fear or comparison, just overwhelming gratitude that we are finally home.

I have a photo I treasure of four generations of women: my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mum, and my sister and me. My mum told me that my great-grandmother, who died when I was a baby, was the godliest woman she ever knew. She never once in her life heard her say an unkind word about anyone. Her response to difficult people was always, “We don’t know what they might be going through.” I can’t wait to see her in heaven. I want to thank her for the life she lived, for the faith that carried her through the years, for all that she poured into my grandmother and how that legacy was passed down to my mum, then to my sister and me.

I think of those of you who are lonely, who have lost a husband or a wife, a parent or a sibling — that is a hard weight to carry. When the loss is sudden, there’s no time to prepare, no time to say the things you wanted to say.

Our great hope, however, is that we will be together again.

I think of moms and dads who have lost children. That has to be the greatest heartache of all. I can’t imagine that kind of pain. I have watched friends walk through this devastating loss. It is as if a part of them has been ripped out of their body, and it’s hard to even take a breath again. One of my friends who has lost two sons told me that when the pain is the freshest, words should be the fewest. At times like these, all we can give each other is the gift of our presence and our love.

The reunions that will take place in heaven between moms and dads and the children who have gone ahead of them must surely be the sweetest of all. You will see your little one again.

4. Your spiritual heroes are there.

Not only will we be reunited with those we love who died before us, but we’ll finally get to meet those we’ve read about, those whose lives have inspired and encouraged us.

Can you imagine what it will be like to sit down with Moses, Elijah, Abraham, David, or Mary the mother of Jesus and simply know them as our brothers and sisters? I think it will be wonderful to chat with C.S. Lewis or Tolkien, with Amy Carmichael or Charles Spurgeon. I think I’m most looking forward to talking with John, the beloved disciple. I love the way he understood that Jesus loved him; it’s sprinkled all through his Gospel account. He refers to himself in John 21:7 as “the disciple Jesus loved.” Think of all the people who have shaped your life, those in scripture and those whose books you’ve read or stories you’ve heard.

I think the greatest thing will be a vision correction, a fine-tuning of our focus. We tend to put certain people on pedestals and think that somehow they are spiritually superior to us, and while it’s fine to be encouraged by a brother or sister, there will be one hero and one hero alone in heaven, and his name is Jesus!

5. Peace and joy are finally yours forever.

I remember a day when I was still a little girl sitting on a towel on the beach beside my mum. It was an unusually warm spring day for Scotland. There was no wind, and the sea was like glass. The sky was periwinkle blue, and we could see across the water to the Isle of Arran. There was still a touch of snow on the peak of Goatfell, its tallest mountain. It was a perfect day. I asked my mum, “Do you think this is what heaven will be like?”

“This and so much more,” she said.

This and so much more. That’s what heaven will be like. This and so much more.

The peace you’ve hoped for.

The joy you’ve prayed for.

The rest that you are weary for, as all disappointment is gone forever. This and so much more.

This essay was adapted from “The Hope of Heaven” by Sheila Walsh ©2024. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.