My Favourite Verse About Heaven
My perspective about heaven has changed a lot over the years. When I was young, I pictured it mostly the ways cartoons do: up in the clouds, wearing white robes, flying around with wings. That seemed pleasant enough, albeit kinda boring to a young kid. Later, I began to discover more of what the Bible described heaven to be like. Scripture portrays heaven as a physical place adorned with great wealth. Streets of gold, pearly gates, a huge city and gorgeous garden to enjoy. At the centre of it all is Christ on his throne, engulfed in full glory. Even later, I read Randy Alcorn’s book on heaven and learned that heaven is a place bustling with life. There are things to do, and it will be more like going back to the garden of Eden—building, creating, cultivating a society—than just an eternal worship service.
This progression has helped me to fill out a better and more accurate view of heaven. But over the last year or so, I’ve discovered another dimension to heaven that excites me as much as any other. It is the concept that heaven will be the ultimate experience of perfect freedom.
Here’s one way the Bible puts it. In Malachi 4:2, it says “for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”
The first image is that of a healing sunrise. Being from Canada, I am used to long, harsh winters. It can get bitter cold, and the sun is often not even up when you leave for work in the morning and has already set before you leave work to go home. It’s a lot of dark days for a solid 6 months. Like many people, I find this affects my mood. You get bored, lazy, grumpy, stir crazy. There is even a medical term to describe this phenomena: Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is basically a form of depression brought on by the long and gloomy days of winter.
But when spring comes…ah!! Spring! Suddenly you notice the sunrise coming up as you head out the door in the morning. Soon you are driving home before the sun has set. The snow starts to melt, the temperature rises, and the trees start to grow leaves. This experience of new life is so refreshing and encouraging that it almost has a healing element to it. Your mood, energy, and optimism all start to rise. Before long the snow is gone and God’s creation begins to fill with colour again and you can’t help but want to be outside all the time and enjoy the great weather.
This is a tiny little picture of what heaven will be like. It will be like our entire life on earth was living through a dark, cold winter, and finally spring has sprung. Our spirit will discover new life and the sensation will be so utterly wonderful it can be described as nothing other than healing. Man, what a great analogy!
The second image from Malachi 4:2 is that of a calf leaping out of the stall.
I don’t have much experience with cows. I didn’t grow up on a farm. But I do know a little about dogs. I have a dog who is just 1 year old right now. He’s a little, fluffy furball that is bursting with energy. And, like most dogs, he loves being around people! However, he’s still at a point where we can’t trust him when we leave the house. So, whenever we head out, he has to get put into his kennel.
When we come back home, we always finding him standing in his crate, tail wagging, practically vibrating with anticipation. He wimpers and whines until we go over and open the crate door. And what does he do? He bolts out like a rocket! He tears around the house like a maniac and jumps all over us until we give him the attention he’s craving.
Our experience of heaven will be like that. It will feel like all this time we had been caged up, and finally we are set free! We will go leaping like a calf let out of the stall! I find that to be an incredibly profound analogy. And honestly, it makes my heart leap a little with joy.
I’m not sure if you can relate, but there are times when life just frustrating. Actually, I feel like life is mainly frustration that is broken up with moments of joy. I always feel like there is more than what I’m experiencing. I feel like I can be a better man, a better husband, a better father, a better friend. I get so annoyed with myself because I know I’m not fully being the person God has created me to be.
And not just that, but it’s like that everywhere you look. This world is not as it should be. Yes, there is beauty. There is happiness. There are meaningful experiences. But overall, you can’t help but just feel angered by the way things are. People all over this world are starving, dying of disease, suffering under oppression, straining and clawing to scratch out a meaningful existence. We fail, we falter, we make mistakes that have negative consequences for ourselves and others around us.
In other words, this world is broken. It’s broken beyond repair. And not only is this world broken, but so am I. And so are you.
The thought that one day all that could be changed—how amazing is that? That hate would be replaced with love, darkness with light, despair with hope. That struggle and suffering would be lifted and replaced with enjoyment and satisfaction. That I no longer would feel like things shouldn’t be this way, but instead feel like this is the way things were always meant to be! That is heaven!
It won’t just be our environment that changes. More importantly, it will be us. I will finally be free from myself. Free from my own sinfulness, my own stupidity, my own selfishness, my own disease, and made whole. I will be able to be who God created me to be. His glory will shine full strength in my life, because it will no longer be marred by my own sin. And we will be able to see that fully realized in each other, and then enjoy that forever together. And Christ will get all the glory. Wow!
I do feel like I’m living in a cage, like I’m trapped inside myself and inside this world where nothing is quite right. I see glimpses of what could be, but efforts to get there are futile. Then, when I’m with the Lord in heaven, all that will be gone and the fullness of life that God has planned for those who love him will be realized for the rest of eternity. It will feel like someone swung the cage door open and we are finally free.
The apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 7:24–25, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? [25] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
I can relate to this on a deep level. I feel the exact same way. Wretched man! Why do I keep doing these things? Why can’t I break free from my sin? Why can’t I be the person I want to be? This body of death, this sinful flesh of mine, keeps me down. It’s wasting away slowly and dragging me down into a pit of death both physically and spiritually. It has to go! And the greatest news ever is that Christ died to remove that part of me. He will remove completely the sin and death that clings to me and I’ll finally be free. Free to be happy, to love, to be loved, to laugh and live and know the fullness of life that Christ came to give.
For now, we get a taste of this future hope here and there. But one day it will be a reality. I hope you reach out and take hold of Christ, the only one who can offer you this gift, free of charge. He alone holds the keys to your freedom. Don’t delay another day!
Canadian Bible Guy 
Thanks for sharing! My first Spirit filled Pastor spoke a lot about heaven to whet our appetites, so I’ve been drawn to read books about heaven for many years. I started with My Glimpse of Heaven by Betty Maltz, Death and the Life After and Angels by Billy Graham, Joni Earikson Tada’s book, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, and Heaven Is For Real! plus many others that I can’t remember. Lately, I’ve been watching Kat Kerr who a lot of people think is wacky, but much of what she shares about heaven agrees with Kevin Zadai and several others that have been taken up to heaven in recent years. We need to avoid seeing salvation as just a ticket to heaven, but also need to know it’s a big part of our super-natural living on earth; Father, on earth as it is in heaven, Amen.
I know this will be true for Heaven, but I also believe it’s for us believers in this new era we are coming into from Fall 2021.