In Heaven

This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven…”

                        Matthew 6.9

The Land of Oz

When I was about six or so, my Sunday school teacher did her best to drive home how we should love and obey God so we can go to Heaven. Oh, what a magical picture she painted—everything all shiny and happy, full of wonderful people to visit with. She went around the room, asking whom we most wanted to see there. A lot of grandparents made the list and a few kids said, “Jesus.” (Give them gold stars!) My turn came and I said, “I want to see Dorothy and Toto.”

It was an honest answer. The Land of Oz was the only thing I knew fitting her description. Despite all I’ve learned, I'm still fighting that image of Heaven as an Art Deco wonderland with glistening Technicolor towers and a shrill welcome chorus singing, “You’re out of the dark, you’re out of the woods, you’re out of the night.” Yes, it’s foolish, yet all these years later I’ve not found a suitable replacement. If Heaven doesn’t look like Oz, what does it look like?

No Reference Point

Having no reference point frustrates our vision of Heaven. It’s like nothing we’ve ever known or seen. Attempting to describe it, Paul refers the Corinthians to Isaiah 64.4: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” I imagine his readers closing Isaiah and saying, “Well, that was no help!” 

“Hang on,” Paul says. We can’t picture Heaven in our minds, “but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit,” adding, “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” (1 Corinthians 2.10, 13) We can’t explain Heaven because we haven’t words or wisdom to adequately define it. Heaven is a spiritual truth, not the Emerald City or a sublime subdivision inhabited by haloed harpists and cloud jockeys. Here’s all we need to know about it: it’s true and it’s real, because God is true and real, and Heaven is His home.

Going to Heaven

Seeing Heaven as a spiritual reality—as opposed to a physical, post-physical, or metaphysical “state”—synchs up with what Jesus told the woman at the well: “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4.24) Acknowledging God dwells in Heaven ushers us into the reality of His presence. It removes us from human interference compromising our clarity. It sets the stage for intimate, truthful conversation and lifts natural boundaries to our faith. Most of all, it changes the flow. We go to Him first with our needs. Then He comes to us.

When we readjust our concept of Heaven in this way, it becomes more than a celestial afterlife resort. We go to Heaven every time we pray! When we recognize this, “Our Father in Heaven” gains fresh meaning. It’s not just a sacred “Hello.” It says, “I’m here because I need to talk to You.”

Heavenly, yes; Heaven, no.

(Tomorrow: Hallowed Be Your Name)