“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you…” 1 Peter 1: 3-4

Ever been traveling and you come across that one place that makes you say, “Wow, I love this place! Someday, I am going to have to return and make this place my home.” Several years ago, my wife and I were privileged to go to Europe and see the sights. On this particular trip, it was one of the best. We traveled into England and through France and caught a night train into Italy. What a night that was. The following day we ventured into a little town named Passignano, where we stopped for several hours to take a short break. It was a Lake District community between Florence and Rome. Our tour guide told us about this quaint little village nestled beside a beautiful lake and mountain side. It was as though you went back into time with cobble stone roads leading up through the well manicured Tuscany looking homes that were nestled tightly together on a gentle sloping mountainside. As we toured this small town, I remember saying to my wife, “This is a place I could easily retire to one day.” What amazed me most was we were both incredibly charmed over this scenic town. So quaint. So peaceful. So perfect! Kind of made me think about our final abode—where our true citizenship is found—Heaven. A place where everything is perfect!

Heaven will be the sweetest place you could ever know. Of course, Passignano is no comparison to what the glories of heaven will be like. Martin Luther said of heaven, “I would not give one moment of heaven for all the joy and riches of the world, even if it lasted for thousands and thousands of years.” Jonathan Edwards also expresses his sentiment on heaven when he says, “To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.” I just know when that day comes I will be at my final destination. It will be where God and his people (anyone who has confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior) will be together forever. To the believers we’ve lost and who have gone before us, we shall be with them again. It’s where the great cloud of witnesses since the beginning of time shall stand beside us and where God’s angelic host dwells.

The Apostle John gives us such a beautiful and ineffable vision of what heaven shall be like without spoiling it too much. I believe we are going to stand in amazement, overwhelmed with an inexpressible joy; the unspeakable, indescribable, beyond words, with our mouths dropped and eyes wide open kind of feeling. The Apostle Paul reminds us that, as this life is transient, heaven will not be so momentary. Time as we know it will cease and eternity will begin. There will no longer be pain that rifles our bodies, aging that slows us down, no diseases and illnesses, death becomes incorruptible. This perishable body shall be raised imperishable, and this mortal body will take on immortality! No need for the sun to shine as the glory of God will shine in its fullness. This is the living hope and reality you can trust in because of the love and grace our heavenly Father has lavished upon us through his son Jesus Christ! This is how heaven is described in the Scriptures. It will be beyond our wildest dreams. Life doesn’t terminate at death, nor does life endlessly evolve without purpose, nor do we morph from one life into the next. These frail bodies will be fashioned anew putting on immortality (1 Corinthians 15: 35-58; Revelation 19: 1, 9; Revelation 21:1-8; Revelation 21: 9-27). Sounds pretty spectacular when we put it all together.

Let me share with you a touching story about a young Jewish girl named Micheline, who, early in my Christian education ministry, came to me wanting to know more about Jesus. Her curiosity and desire for a changed life led her to confess Christ as Lord and to be baptized. God’s plan was amazingly not our plan, nor what her supportive parents had envisioned. Nearly a year later I received a call that Micheline had experienced a brain aneurism and for me to come quickly to Children’s Hospital. For days we took turns sitting by her side praying and reading the word to her. Miraculously, against what the doctors had determined, she pulled through. Although Micheline was left severely debilitated, she never allowed her peaceful smile to flee her presence. Upon completing her rigorous physical and speech therapy, she brought me a gift of two ceramic praying hands she had painted. I’ve treasured, protected, and displayed this gift in my office for decades. Astoundingly, the next thing she asked me was to do a study with her about heaven. With her parent’s permission I met weekly with Micheline and she seemed to become more radiant as we searched the scriptures together. I can’t tell you what joy I had to know this wonderful young lady, a mature 14 year old. It wasn’t but a couple of weeks beyond the completion of our study that I received another phone call that Micheline had gone home to be with her heavenly Father. She knew the reality of her Savior and Heaven to come. Our lives were forever changed in our desire to see what she saw in the spiritual heavenlies while on this earth.

What’s even more inexpressible are those we’ve loved who have gone before us with this shimmering indescribable glory that covers over them. Along my journey, I have had the privilege of knowing some of the greatest Christians that you would ever want to know. I am sure you, too, can name those loved ones and heroes of the faith, those close to your heart. These are the men and women of the faith who motivate us to see what they saw—they compel us to not downplay what God has for us to see. They are characterized with a belief in prayer and faithfulness to their loving God and are filled with great knowledge acquired from the Holy Word that sets them free. These souls have peered into the glories of the unseen heavenlies with eyes of faith. What astounds me about their faith is that it is alive with a living hope that transcends beyond today and into tomorrow’s eternity. This living hope that Peter talks about is centered upon the fact that Jesus is their Savior and Friend who is personal and true and sure to return. These godly souls, whose impeccable love for Christ, impacts us immensely from the moment we meet them. The imprint they leave for us is almost majestic —a desire to follow Jesus and continually peer into Heaven.