What Will Heaven Be Like? A Personal Opinion
You’ll notice I said “Personal Opinion” rather than my normal titles, such as “Biblical Response” or “Pastoral Approach.” The reason is that this will not be a well-thought-out, in-depth explanation of heaven from Scripture, but rather a meditation and explanation of heaven from how I understand it to be. I will do a more theological article later, but this one will be much more off the cuff and poetic than my usual articles.
What will heaven be like? It’s something every Christian wonders, and to some extent, we all have an idea in our heads as to what it will be like. However, anything we can think or imagine falls drastically and woefully short of what the true reality will entail.
In heaven, we won’t be sitting in a disembodied state, spirits, praising the Lord forever. That particular role is for the angels, those who fly about the throne singing “Holy, Holy, Holy.” For humanity, our eternity will be in an embodied state as physical beings, walking about on the earth in perfected forms. Jesus is the first fruits of those who sleep, so we will be like him, physically resurrected into our bodies in such a way that we can be known and recognized by those we knew in our early lives, but changed in ways we cannot imagine. We will be more “us” than we are right now. Those in heaven are perfected by God, not to be changed into something different, but to be made wholly and completely who they are meant to be in the eyes of God.
In being made fully ourselves, I am of the firm belief that we will have jobs in heaven. What those jobs are, I have no idea. But it will be something that you are perfectly made to do. If you’re a musician, it may be creating and performing songs of praise. If you are a gardener, it may be tending to Eden, causing it to flourish, and propagating Eden outward to all creation. If you love to knit or crochet, then you will be weaving for the glory of God. Everyone has their place in heaven, a job for which they were made and one that will be to the ever-growing glory of God.
Additionally, we will be growing closer to God. As the years go by, we will become more and more like God. Now, we will never “become” gods ourselves. Rather, we will become increasingly better image bearers, reflecting the face of our Father with greater clarity through who we are. We are stained glass windows, with the light of God shining through in spectacular ways to illuminate the world. At first, our windows are dirty, and little light gets through. But as we grow closer to Him, that light shines with greater intensity. The most beautiful part is that this process goes on forever. In 100 million years, we will look like glorious beings to our former selves. But as we look at God, we see that we have barely scratched the surface. God is infinite, so we will be infinitely growing closer to him, becoming more like him, and infinitely far away.
In my opinion, the world will not be made perfect immediately after the resurrection. We will be, but the world will not. It will not be made perfect, but it will be set right. Things will return to as they were in the Garden of Eden, and we will be tasked with following the original command, tending to the Garden, and bringing it to creation. I don’t think that stops with Earth. Once we have made Earth into Eden, we have a sky full of stars and planets to look up at. We will take Eden to those faraway celestial places, propagating Eden throughout all creation. Could God do it himself? Yes, of course he could. But he delights in sharing work with his creatures and working his goodness through them. We will be the hands of God in physical creation, as the angels are his hands and feet in spiritual creation. We will work together to bring all creation into the glory of God.