Looking up to Heaven. An idea.

I felt like I was looking up to heaven as I looked at the church screen.

Except, it wasn’t heaven–it was the surface of water.

The photographer took the photo underwater looking up at the surface.

It made me wonder.

If I was a fish, could I imagine what the sky or even land was like once I passed through the ocean’s surface?

Parallel–I only know this world, but I’m told heaven is good and I’m going there after I die. Can I trust, that heaven is good if I can’t see it?

Looking up to heaven with a group of wise women

I led a Bible study on the subject of heaven several years ago.

At the time, I felt uneasy about the afterlife–and what it meant within my consciousness, who I was.

My group of ladies were all older than me–indeed, several were in their nineties.

I figured they might be just as interested in the subject as I was. They already were looking up to heaven and wondering.

In theory, they’d get there before me.

(Which is what happened with some of them).

I also needed to make sure these wise women were secure in their faith and future.

As often happened, they consoled me.

Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven.

While I had an actual Bible study on the subject–and we used it–I read Randy’s Alcorn’s splendid book Heaven.

(I also read my friend Lynn Vincent’s book Heaven is Real–which was interesting but is another story).

I hadn’t realized how nervous looking up to heaven and into my future made me feel until I opened Alcorn’s book.

He’s done a lot of research and thinking. The book reassured me that heaven isn’t going to be all angels, white gowns, and harps.

By Hans Memling Wikimedia Commons

Alcorn never explicitly said, “this is how it will be.” He extrapolated from Scripture passages of what it might be like.

We’ll find out when we get there. We know God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will be there–the sources of love, joy, peace, gentleness, and so forth.

That should be enough for me.

(Randy Alcorn still writes about heaven, particularly since his wife died. You can read his material on his website.)

What diference does it make?

I return to a fish looking up to heaven through the surface where water and air meet.

Can it imagine living a different way than breathing through gills and gliding through the water?

Can a fish grasp what it’s like to live in a different medium–air, the sun beating down, temperature differences, walking?

Does it care?

DO I care what heaven will be like?

I don’t think so.

Jesus explains in John 4:2 that he is preparing a place for us in heaven. He said if it wasn’t so he wouldn’t have told us it was.

Do I trust God or not?

Am I looking up to heaven?

I am now, but for a long time I wasn’t sure.

About a year into writing my biography of Biddy Chambers, I discovered she didn’t want a biography written about her.

I was horrified.

How could I do this to her? What would she say to me when she found out?

But, I had a book contract. I had to write the book. Which I did: Mrs. Oswald Chambers: The Woman Behind the World’s Bestselling Devotional.

I felt uneasy about heaven. Joking I’d have to sneak in the back door and avoid Biddy for the first thousand years because I didn’t want her angry with me.

I don’t really expect her to hug me, but I can hope! (Wikimedia Commons–not me or Biddy!)

When telling this horrifying news, I’d joke that I knew OC (Oswald Chambers) would greet me, laughing that I’d told her story.

Jesus would be there, too, of course. I expected him.

I didn’t realize for a while, however, that it really bothered me.

One church service, the presiding pastor asked us to close our eyes and, looking up to heaven, imagine who would greet us when we got to the pearly gates.

Obedient as always, I closed my eyes and sighed.

In my mind, there they were.

Jesus smiling with arms open wide. I grinned back.

As expected, OC stood behind him laughing. He tossed his head to the left.

Over his shoulder, I saw Biddy.

Tears filled my eyes.

Now, her arms weren’t open wide . . . indeed, they were crossed.

But her eyes were kind, her eyebrows raised, and her lips twitched.

I knew, then, she’d forgiven me.

Am I looking up to heaven?

Yes– now that I know I only have to break the surface between earth and heaven.

I won’t have to sneak in the backdoor after all!

Who are you expecting to see when you get to heaven?

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