A New Earth

What is heaven like?

Sometimes Christians are accused of failing to describe heaven with any sort of compelling vision. It’s true: if heaven is just a place with fuzzy white light and fat cherubs playing boring music on harps, who wants to go there? 

What is heaven like? Answer: Earth! It will be a lot like here, just without sin. From the perspective of the Bible, sin causes all else evil: earthquakes, floods, disasters, wars, famines, poverty, disease, murder, loneliness, broken homes, mental disorders, global warming, crime, bankruptcy, corruption, tyranny, emotional pain, meaninglessness, grueling labor, grief, death. The list goes on. The reason heaven is hard to describe is that it is hard for us to imagine life on earth without sin.

Behold, I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth. (Isaiah 65:17) The earthy-ness of the Bible and its imagery starts on page one with water and touches every other elemental image—fire, wind, bread, wine, body, blood, stones, mud, earth—to help us understand that God is here on earth and aims to make it a beautiful place. 

The best part? Human beings will have such elemental unity with God and each other, that their new physical bodies will show forth the glory of God as if they were “clothed with righteousness.” Can you imagine?  

O God, draw me to the vision of a new earth. Amen.