Our sense organs 45

The Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known by
her nickname Sissi (1837 – 1898) was known in
the 19 th century as the most beautiful woman in
Europe. She was so vain that she would not have
her portrait painted after her thirtieth birthday,
let alone have photographs taken of her. The
German author Annelie Fried writes, “Female
television hosts reach their date of expiry at the
age of forty. After that, the nation watching from
their living rooms counts the wrinkles.”
Heaven, in contrast, is a place of everlasting
beauty. All who have gone there will stay beautiful
forever. When we become like Jesus (1 John
3:2), we will also receive His beauty. The earthly
value of looking “forever young” is not nearly
adequate to describe the heavenly ideal.
5 Heaven is where our lives will be fulfilled
Most of mankind live below the poverty line.
Forty thousand children die daily because they do
not have enough to eat. Others are rich; they can
afford whatever worldly goods their heart desires
and yet are unhappy. Many suffer from depression
and worries, or are simply bored.
Jesus is aware of both emotional and physical
human needs. “When he saw the crowds, he had
compassion on them, because they were
harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”
(Matt 9:36). He wants to help especially
here; that is why in John 10:10 He gives as the
main reason of His Coming: “I have come that
they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Converting to Jesus changes our lives so fundamentally
here on earth that we can clearly see
the difference between the old and the new life
(Rom 6:4; Col 2:6; 1 Pet 4:3). However, it is once
we are in heaven, that our lives become completely
fulfilled. There, we will know for the first
time, what true quality of life means.
A critic once said that he would never feel like
sitting on a cloud and playing a harp for ten
thousand years. That is a fabricated picture of
life after death, one which we do not find in
the Bible.
Heaven is life in abundance. The concept of
scarcity is not known in heaven. There is nothing
there in need of improvement. Boredom is also
unknown, for heaven is complete and offers a life
of fulfillment.
While hell can be described as a place of lasting
unfulfilled desires, there will be no more yearning
in heaven. This does not necessarily mean that all
our earthly desires will find their fulfillment in
heaven, but that the richness of heaven will be
shared with us – a richness which we cannot
even imagine – a richness which will make earthly
desires superfluous.
When we experience beautiful moments here on
earth, we want to hold on to them. That is what
Goethe describes when he writes, “Stay but, thou
art so fair!” Cameras and videos capture the past;
they do not represent life. Heaven, on the other
hand, could be described as everlasting simultaneousness.
Nothing is constrained by mortality.
Everything is permanent.
Here on earth, we can only be in one place at one
time. Each move brings separation from people
we love. Saying “good-bye” is often painful. In
heaven, we will never have to say “good-bye.”
6 Heaven is a home for us
The architects of this world continually invent
new types of buildings. Jörn Utzon, the architect
of the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, used a
peeled orange as his inspiration. We admire powerful
palaces of glass and high-reaching towers
of concrete. An architect once wrote that “architecture
unites the demands of art with technical
perfection. Architecture has been the expression
of humanity’s yearning for the eternal. Besides
architectural works of genius, monuments such
as the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of
Gizeh count as some of the longest-lasting works
of human hands.”
In a nineteenth-century spa resort on the North
Sea island of Juist, a special building was
reopened in 1998 after massive reconstruction.
The White Castle by the Sea, as it is called, located
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