There are many, many different ideas and personal images of "heaven." Almost everyone who believes in heaven, has their own personal idea of what it might be like. Nobody knows for sure about what heaven looks like or what we will do once we are there. But nearly everyone imagines or at least hopes something in particular about it. I would like to ask everyone to describe their personal idea of heaven. Your comments can be as long or as many as you wish. Come back and comment over and over if you continue to think of new things you forgot to mention the first time around.
Use as many details and adjectives as you like. But try your best to describe your personal image of heaven. What do you think it looks like?? What do we look like once we are there?? Are there animals, or trees, or rivers, or mountains, or clouds, or small children??
What do angels look like?? Will we all have a huge mansion of our own?? Will we get to meet and talk to people who were once famous on earth?? Will we have halos or wings?? Will the streets really be paved with gold?? Will each of us get to meet God??
Feel free to express yourself and intimately describe what you yourself imagine heaven to be like or what "every day" life there will consist of for everyone.
Thanks!!!!
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Comments: 64 ( 2 removed by ''The One & Only BERF" .. )
Angels, I think, look like you and me. Maybe even the guy that no one notices on the street, or people turn away from because his clothes are dirty and his hair's uncombed. You just never know.
I noticed you didn't answer your own question though - what is your heaven like?
I haven't thought about meeting other famous people. I don't think there would be any class divisions amoung people in heaven.
Angels would bethere all in white with wings. There would be beautiful music playing. Everyone would be happy of course.
I am not sure what heaven is really like and for a time didn't even believe anymore. That changed during my grandmother's passing many years ago now.
She had had a stoke and was slowly passing on. Her body slowly shutting down. She was lucid throughout and well aware the end was near. About two weeks before she died her potassium had begun to rise, making her incredibly itchy. There was nothing we could do to calm that itch. No matter the creams, it was an inner itch and there was nothing we could do for her.
One morning she woke happier than many of the past mornings. She was tired and even ashamed of the reversal of roles. It bothered her that we were having to do everything for her.
That day was different, She was strangely at peace and content. She told me that she had seen a man. That he had come to tell her her time was near and that her mother was waiting and that she had all the hands she needed to stop her itch. She said he asked if she was ready and she told him she was and that she would like to die on August 13. The same day her first daughter was born and that her own mother had died.
That last week of her life was very peaceful and happy. She gathered as many of her family members as she could and said goodbye to all of us. On August 13 at 11:59 PM she gave us all one last kiss and told us it was time for her to go that she had a very important date at midnight. But not to worry we would all be together again one day. Then, she simply closed her eyes and was gone. She had an amazing smile on her face.
As I mourned her lose, for it was a great one, I realized that at last she was at rest and I knew then that there was something more than this existance. She had seen it. She is not lost to me forever. She is still all around me and perhaps that is what heaven is. A place of your own desire.
I don't know how to explain it. My Uncle who has suffered from polio all of his life and is now confined to a wheelchair says that in his heaven his body will be prefect and he will run, dance, and jump out of planes with me. All of the things he has never been able to do in life.
Is that heaven? I can only hope!
Thank you for a thought provoking guestions that even brought on a bout of cleansing tears.
Blessings,
Blue skies and warm breezes.
Ana
By the way, reincarnation is a fallacy.
While we're saved by Grace, we also do store up our treasures in Heaven. Loving God means that the love shows, that there is evident fruit - love, joy, peace, etc. Loving God means we want to serve Him, and in serving, we're add to our treasures in Heaven. While all who have asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior will be in Heaven, some will have bigger mansions than others because of their loving actions on earth.
But in Heaven, there will be no envy or bad feelings for those whose mansions are bigger. Love will abound. Joy will be there. And eternal peace.
As we worship and are glad to be in such an awesome place.
If you die when you're 80, you won't look 80 in Heaven. You will look the way you did when you thought you looked your best on earth. Again, you won't have an earthly body - but more of an apparition.
I believe that you will be able to communicate to people who are still living. I believe that you will be able to visit (in spirit) those people in order to help them with their grieving process.
Whatever beautiful image you have of Heaven, it awaits for you there. You could be fishing all day, dancing all day, playing cards all day, shopping all day, worshiping your God all day. You will be able to do whatever brings you the most joy and happiness.
I believe that there is not a Hell. Sometimes we go through enough "hell" here on earth. I also believe in Karma and reincarnation (if your jobs and duties and learnings on earth were not completed in this lifetime). I believe we all have a purpose here - and you must find it before you're ready to leave this earth.
Instead since God is perfect, I envision Heaven as a sphere (the closest thing to perfect here in earth) full of love and spiritual energy. It is the core of all knowledge and happiness where we will be united with the spiritual energies of our loved ones, with Jesus, God and everyone else. But is it really like that? Probably not. Like I said, it's beyond my conception.
BTW - while reincarnation is not an accepted ideal in Christianity, there are allusions to it in the Bible that are sufficiently vague so that I don't discount it. Doesn't matter either way - even in the religions that openly believe in reincarnation, the purpose is to achieve Heaven (Nirvana, etc.). The way around either hell or the rebirth cycle, whichever you prefer to believe in, is grace through faith in Christ Jesus.
In my mind,I see lots of green grass,trees and flowers.There are hills and running streams,children playing.and yes animals,all kinds of animals that live in peace...There will be angels singing,although,I can't visionize them having wings......I do believe there angels on earth now.
The first person,I want to see is Jesus,and to thank him,for dying on the cross,so that we may have our sins forgiven,and have eternal life.
I hope to meet all of you someday,in a better place.
I will venture what I want out of Heaven:
On this earth, I have never owned a tree, a bed of grass or a section of land lying beneath a babbling brook. If the Lord will provide me a pine tree on top of a small grassy knoll with a little stream flowing past but within sight of all my loved ones living within the golden city, I will be content. My first day there I will meet the Lord and say thanks to Him. My second day, I will lay my head upon that grassy know underneath that old pine and while listening to the song of the brook, I'll take a nap. Ten thousand years later I'll wake up, take a drink from the brook, moved to the other side of the knoll and take another nap. It will be bliss.
That change I have described in the free novel "Invisible Hand" which I have published here on Gather and have also made available at:
http://www.unc.edu/~mason/hand.html
If you think it's too good to be true then you risk treading a pearl underfoot.
Read the novel and then judge.
Having said that, I would also say that images of heaven from the classical art of winged angels on clouds and such is mere childish fantasy. I also think material descriptions of heaven that include things like mansions are equally childish. God has never been about material things, but spiritual things.
In fact, I even believe that the terms "heaven" and "hell" are mere conveniences to help our limited imaginations try to understand the consequences to our eternal spirit of our Earthly behaviour.
God gave us instructions for how to live happily together on his Earth. They include the Golden Rule, to treat others as you would like them to treat you, which in essence is the whole of His law, anyway. If we live according to His instuctions, or as close as humanly possible, then we "go to heaven", if we don't try to live according to His instructions then we "go to hell".
But what does that mean?
To me it means this: if we have lived a good life, when we die we will be near to God, near to His perfection, near to His love and we will know great joy because of that proximity to the Creator of All Things and our real father; if we have lived a bad life, when we die we will be far away from God, far from His perfection, far from His love and we will know great suffering because of that distance from the Creator of All Things and our real father.
This is not reward or punishment that God will mete out to us according to our obedience or lack there of. It is the harvest we will reap according to our own labour. We create these fates for ourselves. I imagine that everyone who "goes to hell" or ends up far from our Heavenly Father in the next life, brings sadness not only to themselves but to God as well. (Wouldn't you, as a parent, be saddened by your child choosing a path that led them far from your love?)
Will there be people we knew in life there to greet us, loved one who passed on before? Well, yes, I think there will be. I think our ability to relate to them will have a lot to do with how they lived this life and how we did. If one of us earned a place near to God and the other did not, then we will not have much contact with each other. Conversely, I think that those who end up near God in the next life will be closer to each other than we ever were here on Earth. I think we may even be pretty well one and the same being, with much less individuality and distinction between one another.
As for "famous people", fame is a banal feature of imperfect human societies. There are many famous people who will not have earned a place near God who will be envious of those who were less famous in life but more decent.
What will we look like? That is an interesting question. I don't see our bodies being part of the deal (though some religious traditions suggest they will, I just don't agree). I'm not sure what we will look like. I do not believe that being made in God's image means that God also has a head, a torso, two arms and two legs along with human genitalia. I think rather that it is a reference to our spirit that was made in His image, capable of knowing love and of being merciful, etc.
The dream opened with me coming out on the outside of a door. I knew that my life on earth was over. An angel stood beside me to my left and a little back, right out of my sight. I knew he was there to bring me into heaven, though.
The place we stood in was dark and dreary, like a dark back-alley. There were people lying around moaning and bewailing in a city that was all gray.
Surely this couldn't be heaven? I thought. Immediately I understood from the angel beside me that we weren't stopping at this spot.
We moved forward and as we did so, seemingly over great distances, effortlessly, things began to get lighter.
The next thing I knew, my angel (I still don't have a definite picture of him, more of a vague knowing) was sitting in the front seat of what seemed to be a car. He was on the passenger side and another angel was in the driver's seat.
I was sitting in the back behind him and another man, someone else who apparently had arrived recently, as well, was sitting behind the driver. The day was bright as though the sun were shining.
We stopped beside a beautiful green grassy hill on our left. Immediately, I looked over at the man beside me. He was equipped with all kinds of state-of-the-art, brand new fishing equipment, where he hadn't been a moment before. Happily he got out of the car and headed over the hill.
When I asked what was happening, my angel informed me that the man was going fishing. That whatever you could imagine, God would allow you to have, and that, that was how heaven worked.
I knew immediately that it was also how hell worked. That those who did not choose to conceive of a wonderful forgiving, loving God would remain wherever their evil imagination could take them.
Of course, the closer we are to Jesus, the more we can imagine grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, beauty, holiness, etc. The farther we are, the darker our souls will be.
Sometimes I wonder do we float about down here near our loved ones. Sometimes I wonder if we reincarnate. Sometimes I wonder if we just become part of the ether, the heaven being peace, not castles in the sky.
But I dont know nuthin'!
As a child I was very scared of heaven-not scared of death though. i was terrified of being ANYWHERE for eternity! Even in luxury. I used to ask my mum "If I die, can you fill up every spare space in my coffin with pencils, paints, paper & activity books?"
I wish I could believe the castle in the sky thing....
Then I would image heaven would be so huge I would be able to have my own acreage & have a few animals. Oh and a vegetable garden, because in heaven I may not have asperger's & I might eat my vegetables!!
Of course...I dont know we would need to eat!
Honestly do not know what to expect, but it will be good, I am sure. Roy said best what I feel. He writes concepts well.
We have but one life. One opportunity.
We live. We die. We are no more. The only thing that lives of us beyond our death is our progeny and our memory in those that knew us but one day even that will be lost.
Enjoy it while you've got it for we do not know when our journey ends.
Live peacefully, love furiously.
Your Cousin in Humanity,
Wood
I know for sure what my Hell would be. I'd be locked in a room with spiders and centipedes and forced to do math for all eternity. Believe me, I am being good so as to avoid that ending!
There will be NO more: hurt, pain, aches, shaking, tremmers, headaches, sadiness, depression, confusion.
It will be just wonderfull!!!!!!!!
Please refer to my above post as it is highly discriminatory for you to overlook my voice so.