When we talk about heaven, we may speak of many things. We can talk about its awesome beauty. We sometimes call really beautiful places on earth a little slice of heaven. We often hear this about the Ozark Mountains here in Northwest Arkansas. Some people who visit Thorncrown Chapel say we have a little slice of heaven here. I don’t argue with them. It is a beautiful place.

The scriptures speak of streets of gold in heaven. Yet, this may have a different meaning than we think. We are not to take the imagery of the scriptures literally at all times. More often Biblical imagery points to deeper things. The talk of streets of gold in heaven might simply be saying there is a different value system in heaven. We humans think gold is the one of the most valuable things there is. What does God think of it? He walks on it. Jesus spoke of treasure in heaven being far different than treasure on earth and far more valuable. So, I don’t know if the streets are literally made of gold in heaven, but I do know there is a completely different value system there. God wants us to have the same value system of heaven on earth.

We talk of there being no more troubles in heaven, and we sing of laying our burden down when go to be with the Lord. Yet, is that the essence of heaven? No more troubles? To finally get out of here where things are so hard? I don’t think that is the proper perspective on heaven and earth. Paul was torn between going to heaven and staying here. If you look at how hard a life he had, that might seem ridiculous. We will look in future posts at why seeing heaven as the great escape is not the best perspective.

We speak of reunion in heaven. The word reunion means the return of union. We talk of seeing our loved ones again and how wondrous that will be. However, I believe that return of union will be far greater than that. Do you think you might see some of your enemies there? Maybe someone you did not like, or they did not like you? Any divisions between us will melt away in heaven. Reunion will be a far bigger picture than just seeing those who loved us in this life. When we speak of such things, we are getting a bit closer to the essence of heaven.

When we speak of heaven and when we see heaven portrayed in the scriptures, we see that there is a lot of worship going on there. I heard someone say, “Gee, I hope the music is good in heaven!” Or maybe when we get there, we suddenly all develop a taste for harp music.

Worship is far deeper than just joyful or solemn music. The essence of worship is communion. That is why it has a central place in heaven. We see worship in the great scenes around the throne of God in the book of Revelation. There God gives Himself to His beloved, and they give themselves back to Him throwing the very crowns He gave them at His feet. Giving ourselves to each other in love naturally flows from such communion with God. These things are the essence of worship and thus are the essence of heaven.