We are promised eternal life when we place our faith in Jesus. It is difficult to comprehend what eternity is with our limited minds and knowledge. However, I remember someone once gave an idea of eternity.
If a million angels were sent to Earth to pick up a grain of sand each for a million years, eternity would have just begun. Friends, that is a lot of time!
Christians often wonder what we will do in eternity. We picture the heavenly gates, roads paved with gold, singing, and other things. Some believe we will all have a mansion. But let's turn to the Bible to see what God has told us. After all, the Bible is the final authority of truth, not tradition.
Jesus said: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve" (Matthew 4:10). Worship is from one's heart. Worship expresses itself in praise. Therefore, serving God is worship, and the Bible is absolutely clear when it states that we will serve God in heaven.
We also read: "His servants will serve Him" (Revelation 22:3). Our earthly life does not allow us to fully serve him purely because of our sinful nature. But in heaven there is no sin! Therefore, everything we do will be an act of worship. Amen!
Jesus also said: "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise." The word Jesus used in this verse for paradise is paradeisos. This translates to a park, or an Eden (an abode of future happiness). Paradeisos is the Greek word taken from the Hebrew word "pardes," which means a park, forest, or orchard. Sounds great to me! How about you?
We will also learn more about God. God is considerably bigger than eternity, and it will take us who believe an eternity "...to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ" (Ephesians 3:18-19). In short, we will never stop learning from God and about Him. Pretty cool. We will also learn from other saints.
We will also have the opportunity to meet our loved ones and friends and remember them, and the things we did on Earth, but we will not be sorrowful. The Bible also promises that we will not have to be in God's paradise by ourselves. Oh, and the 144,000 in Revelation is symbolic, not the actual number of people in heaven.
"I shall fully know even as I also am fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12).
This would seem to mean that we who believe in Christ Jesus will not only know our friends and family, but we will "fully know" them. In short, there is no need for any secrets in heaven. There will be absolutely nothing to be ashamed of like there is here on Earth. There is nothing to hide, because we will all know.
We will have an eternity to meet and greet (so to speak) with "a great multitude, which no man could number, out of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues" (Revelation 7:9). See, that negates the above-mentioned 144,000. No wonder heaven will be a place of continuous learning. Heck, just getting to meet and know everyone will take us an eternity!
And eternity gives us plenty of time to meet and speak with the saints we read about. I don't know about you, but I imagine the lines to meet these people are going to be longer than the lines at the supermarket after payday! But hey, eternity!
We will likely eat as well. All things in heaven are enjoyable. Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden. This was the Earthly paradise they were booted from because of sin. Do we not think that God would not make our heavenly experience when eating much better? And let us remember the marriage supper of the Lamb!
Whatever we will be doing, saying, singing or whatever, we can rest assured it will be fantastic far beyond our wildest imagination.
Blessed be the eternal name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit!
Sweet! Quoting Bible verse like you did is the best way to offer proof of what heaven is really like. Far too often people make up things, like going to heaven and coming back to tell about it. This is pure fantasy. Thanks for the uplifting post, Mariel.