Kids can’t wait to grow up. Remember? Grown-ups don’t have to go to bed on time. Nobody tells grown-ups to take a bath or clean their room or eat their vegetables. The best thing about being a grown up is ... it’s not like being a kid.
One of the best things about being in Heaven is ... it’s not like being on earth.
God gave John a glimpse of lory, of Heaven’s beauty and majesty. But interestingly, as he described his experience, he listed many things that are not present in glory.
John wrote, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more” (Revelation 21:4, CSB). Imagine a place where every negative emotion is absent. Anger is unknown. Hurt is gone forever. Fear is forgotten. Worry or distress? No! There is only joy, peace, contentment, harmony and love.
The city’s eternal citizens will “no longer hunger; they will no longer thirst” (Revelation 7:16, CSB). I’ve never gone without! I’m certainly not malnourished. But for the one living in a third-world refugee camp, the one who has watched many wither and die without food and clean water, Heaven will be wonderfully different. There, no one will go without. Everyone will be satisfied.
In Heaven, there will be no darkness. No night. No shadows. Yet, there will be no sun and no moon. How can this be? Because the illuminating, glorious presence of our Lord will be there (Revelation 21:22-25; 22:5).
There is no sea in Heaven, no oceans (Revelation 21:1). Think about it. What’s between America and Africa? Right! The Atlantic Ocean. Oceans divide countries and continents. In Heaven there will be nothing to divide.
Isaiah wrote, “the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its water churns up mire and muck. There is no peace for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:20–21, CSB). The oceans never stop tossing and churning. In Heaven there will be peace and rest.
“Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false”(Revelation 21:27, CSB). No temptation. No evil. Nothing sinful.
In Heaven, we won’t go to the church or the temple to worship “because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22, CSB). In Heaven, we’ll worship at the feet of the living and ever-present Jesus!
Finally, in Heaven, there will be no lost people. Only one who is born again, converted, transformed by Jesus’ saving power will enter. To all others, Jesus will declare, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23, ESV). Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, CSB). In Heaven, there will be no opportunity to witness to your lost family-member or friend, so we better point them to the Savior today.
