What awaits me after I die is the single mystery of life that I simply cannot understand until the moment when it occurs. I can imagine what it might be like to walk on the surface of the moon, or on the bottom of the ocean, even what it might be like to jump from an airplane and fall to the earth. The reason I can imagine these things is because people have done them already, and described their experiences.
The Bible reassures me that since I have faith in Jesus, that he paid the price for my sins, that I have a place in heaven for me when my life here is over. What the Bible does not do, however, is give any concrete details about the experience of dying, and exactly what happens after death. Yes, it talks about it in general terms — we will be in the presence of Christ, we will no longer suffer any pain or sorrow, and it will last forever. But the Bible is lacking in details.
We do know it will be better than anything that anyone has ever experienced here on earth. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul quoted Isaiah, saying “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” So what the world ahead holds in store is beyond what I can imagine.
Keith Green spoke of this in his song, I Can’t Wait To Get To Heaven on the album The Prodigal Son in 1983. Keith starts by talking to the audience at a concert:
“You know, I look around at the world and I see all the beauty that God made. I see the forest and the trees and all the things. And it says in the Bible that He made them in six days, and I don’t know if they’re a literal six days or not. Scientists would say no; some theologians would say yes; it doesn’t matter to me. But I know that Jesus Christ has been preparing a home for me, and for some of you, for two thousand years. And if this world took six days, and that home took two thousand years, … this is living in a garbage can compared to what’s going up there.”
Seaside sunset, silver linings round the clouds,
Birds fly, singing, making such a joyful sound.
Thoughts of heaven somehow seem to fill my mind,
But I can’t even imagine, what it is I’m gonna find.I can’t wait to get to Heaven, when you’ll wipe away all my fears.
In six days you created everything,
but you’ve been working on Heaven two thousand years.Deep green forests, mountains reaching for the sky,
Grasslands and deserts, your creation fills my eye.
Thank you, thank you Jesus, though this beauty is just a taste,
Of all your glory I’ll see when I pass through those gates.I can’t wait to get to Heaven, when you’ll wipe away all my fears.
In six days you created everything,
but you’ve been working on Heaven two thousand years.
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