I have a terminal disease. Now before you grab for your phone to reach out and love on me a bit, stop and consider the truth that we all have a terminal disease. To help build and maintain perspective, ancient merchants used to write on the front page of their accounting books: “MEMENTO MORI.” It means “Think of Death.” The father of Alexander the Great tried to stay focused by commissioning a servant to stand in his presence each day and say, “Philip, you will die.”

I am not trying to be morbid, but the goal is to maintain a balanced attitude about this life and keep things in perspective for the next. We will not live forever in our present bodies. Whatever comes next ought to intrigue us. We should be concerned about tomorrow. Frankly speaking, the topic of HEAVEN should be at the front of our minds.

But modern Christians are all but ignoring the weighty truths surrounding Heaven. Our churches don’t discuss it very often. Theologians write volumes about the Tribulation, Armageddon, the Judgment Seat of Christ but totally ignore the ultimate or permanent Heaven. And of course, Satan loves it when we skip over the important truths about the final destination for believers.

So maybe this week is a grand opportunity to put some time and energy into discovering the Biblical Heaven all believers are headed towards. A good place to start is by studying the accounts of people who got a peek into heaven and came back to tell us about. Look up the incident in Isaiah’s life in Isaiah 6:1-8. What was his reaction?

Take a long look at Stephen in Acts 7:55-60. What did he see? How did that truth affect him?

Then take another look at John in Revelation 4:1-11. John got to see more details than Stephen. He got a tour of the throne room, got to see the inhabitants there and heard what they were saying. What was it like?

The permanent Heaven is NOT just a spiritual place where the spiritual blobs of men and women float around. The New Heaven and the New Earth will be familiar to us. We will know each other. We will enjoy meaningful work. We will worship and serve the Lord with passion as one large congregation. We will use one language as we represent every nation, tribe, people and language (take a long look at Revelation 5 and 7).

There will be no more sorrow on any kind. God Himself will wipe away tears. We will enjoy things that we know. (According to Ezekial 47, I may be able to do some fishing in Heaven.) We will not be angels, but resurrected children of God ready to enjoy Him forever.

Believers ought to yearn for Heaven. We should be homesick for glory. C.S. Lewis said, “If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” And we were.

To do some thinking on this topic I encourage you to order Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven and John Mark Comer’s book Garden City. As you digest what they offer on this subject, I promise that you will indeed get homesick for Heaven.