Heaven

I struggle with the idea of heaven. It's not that I don't believe in heaven. I do. It's the idea of what life with be like once we get there that I have problems with.

There are many different ideas of what heaven is like. A popular one is that we'll all have wings and will spend eternity on a cloud, strumming on golden harps. Another is that we'll live in mansions on streets of gold (I think that one is from the commercialist viewpoint). Still others think of heaven as a place where we will worship, day and night, the most high God in complete bliss due to our complete and sincere love for Him.

Well, for one thing, I don't believe that we'll spend our time in heaven with God. As I stated in my post Heaven is not Our Home, I believe that Christ will come to us on Earth, and later the New earth. But that still doesn't change the whole "eternity with God is bliss" thing. I find it hard to grasp the idea that we'll just be sitting around, worshiping God or enjoying our mansions or strumming our harps till the end of eternity.

My problem with this idea lies in the fact that we are all human. And most of what makes us human is the fact that we struggle. The very essence of humanity is that we are constantly changing, constantly evolving, and constantly battling all the circumstances and issues that come at us in our lives. The very reason we live is because we choose to live. We fight to live. Why do you think we fight God's direction in our lives? We are strugglers.

So if one day we will live in peace and harmony with God in eternity, does that mean that we will cease to be human? If we are no longer struggling, what will we be doing? Did God create us to simply worship him? I believe that one of the main reasons He created us was to worship Him, but not just by crying out, "Glory to God in the Highest" a thousand times a day. God has a choir of angels that do that. No, we worship God with our lives, by living out our talents and pleasures, by enjoying God's creation. Why do think He's making a New Earth? I think it is because he wants us to not only enjoy it, but to change it and make it our own. Why would he create us to constantly evolve and discover if we are to just stand around doing nothing forever?

So this is my struggle with heaven. Will we loose what it means to be human, or will God let his creation shine brightest in an unadulterated world where there is no separation between Him and mankind? Perhaps we will become far more human when that time comes. Perhaps only then, we will truly know who we are.