When We All Get to Heaven

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:50-57 NIV)

Throughout my 50 plus years serving as a pastor I have had many questions about heaven. Lots of people wonder about heaven. What will it be like? When will we arrive there? Will we know our loved ones? Will our pets join us there?

First and foremost, the Bible reveals that heaven will be an eternal place of unbroken fellowship with God.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4 NIV)

Heaven will be a place where the old order of things has passed away. In our redeemed and glorified existence, there will be no more sin nature to keep us from being all God intended as those created in His own image. It will be a place of transformed relationships of love and life, with no more pain or sorrow or death. And God Himself will be fully with us in unfettered fellowship. Heaven will be an eternity of the Garden of Eden restored. It's gonna be great!

When we arrive there is a trickier question. The Bible seems to have two perspectives on what happens to us when we die. One perspective is captured in 1 Corinthians 15 above - when we die physically we sleep in death until the great and glorious return of Jesus Christ, at which time we will be raised from the dead and transformed in the twinkling of an eye. The other perspective is found in Jesus' words to the thief on the cross:

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43 NIV)

This perspective is echoed by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8:

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

In this second perspective we arrive in heaven a moment after we die. To be absent from the body (to die) is to be home with the Lord, in heaven.

I am convinced these two perspectives are simply different facets of the same diamond. Sleeping until resurrection day is death seen from the perspective of the timeline of earth, which has a past, a present and a future. Seen from that perspective, those who die sleep until we are all raised together. On the other hand, the perspective of immediately arriving in heaven when we die is seeing death from heaven's eternal perspective, which is timeless. All of human history is present to heaven. To leave history is to enter eternity where time is not measured like it is here on earth.

I believe it's actually both/and. I choose to believe what Jesus said to the thief. When I die, I believe I will immediately be ushered into eternity. The interesting this is that both perspectives end up in the same place. When we sleep, we have no consciousness of the passing of time, so if we sleep in death until resurrection day, we will experience the same thing - instantaneous awakening without the experience of the passing of time.

As to loved ones and pets in heaven, Scripture seems to include both, but in transformed relationships. In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus told a story about a rich man who had no mercy on a poor beggar named Lazarus. They both died. The rich man ended up in hell, and he could see Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. He recognized both Lazarus, whom he had met begging at his gates on earth, and Abraham, whom he had never met.

Jesus also responded to a contrived question from some Sadducees (who did not believe in resurrection). They posed a scenario of seven brothers all marrying the same wife after each of the others died. They asked Jesus, "Now at the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since all of them were married to her?" Jesus responded this way:

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” (Matthew 22:29-32 NIV)

In affirming there will, indeed, be a resurrection to these non-believing Sadducees, Jesus also claims an interesting thing: At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. We will know the people of our lives on earth, but we will have transformed relationships with them. I am not bummed out that Jesus seems to say Shirley and I will not be married in heaven. I take it to mean our relationship will be even deeper and more intimate, and we will share a deeper love with everyone in heaven, not just with a primary family. I don't believe it will be less satisfying there, but rather more.

The Bible says there will be animals in heaven. In his vision of the fulfilled Kingdom of Shalom (peace) that God will bring to pass, the prophet Isaiah describes it this way:

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9 NIV)

Here we see that there will be animals in heaven, and that there will be a transformed relationship with them and between them as well. I believe beloved pets will be present in heaven, in some fulfilled way as companions, and not just as pets.

Whatever the details, Scripture reveals that heaven is going to be glorious beyond our imagination. It will be far from boring or unfulfilling, as some picture it. Jesus will be there in all His glory, and so will every human being who trusts Him for redemption. Are there unanswered questions about what heaven will be like? Sure thing. God's purpose in revealing Himself to us in Scripture is to bring us into a life-giving relationship with Himself and show us the vision of how to live here-and-now to honor Him and to be all He created us to be.

Heaven will certainly have some surprises. We won't have it all figured out now. God and heaven are simply to0 big for us to figure out. So we walk by faith, and not by sight.

And some day, when we all get to heaven, we'll spend eternity together with Him!