What will Heaven be like?

We were discussing what heaven will be like at our House Group. There were a variety of thoughts and opinions. Well that, if you think about it, is to be expected. We all have different places and situations that are “heavenly” for us. As individuals we like different foods and different music, we go to different places on holiday and choose different television and radio programmes. Our choice of reading material, theatre or cinema programmes, sport and other leisure pursuits, are sometimes very different even from our husbands. I count at least one blessing since my husband died: I now never have to watch football on the television!

Recently, celebrating Harvest, we had a Thanksgiving Service in church. We sang the hymn with the line: “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above.” So if these gifts come to us from heaven then that is surely where they are to begin with. Heaven will include autumn flowers, apples and onions from our garden, tins of beans and packets of pasta. If we are lucky fresh bread and a bunch of grapes! Hopefully there will be spring flowers too and roses of course, and the odd bottle of wine, pint of beer and a gin and tonic. Fortunately the bible tells us that Jesus said “in my Father’s house there are many mansions”. So, with any luck, I will be able to be in a different room to the one where cigarettes are smoked and heavy metal music played! But you will be next door and I can enjoy your company when I choose!

On one of my trips to Africa I visited a refugee camp in Northern Uganda. They took us to see a young woman who had just given birth to her first child. She was alone in a small hut which was surrounded by many, many identical huts as far as I could see. We asked her where her family were. She told us her husband had gone to fetch water. We gave her water to drink from the bottle I always carried. The taps were several hundreds of yards away, as were the toilets. What was her idea of heaven I wonder?

All this is irrelevant speculation because we don’t know. We only have Jesus able to tell us in detail and he doesn’t.

As for me all I can do is, every morning when I get up, give thanks to God for the blessings of the day before me and every evening for all that has been good. Each day is different and the older I get the more things I find to be thankful for.

Here is this morning’s list: I can still manage to clean the bath, the water to clean my teeth is fresh and wholesome, there is cold milk in the fridge for my muesli and hot water in the kettle for my tea, grandchildren that need me and a train to get to them on. It is sunny and warm and there is no danger of fallen leaves or the wrong kind of snow on the train lines. Also I have done this and that is the last thing on my to-do-list that is urgent. Praise the Lord!