Time is how we measure our lives. it seems to sometimes pass slowly, and sometimes quickly, depending on our circumstance and perspective. While our measure of time remains constant, we perceive a different reality. As we pause at a cemetery tombstone we observe a person’s life summarized by a date of birth and a date of death, and perhaps a few words to describe the impact of their existence. Some have noted it’s the “dash” between those dates that really describe our lives; the days, years, and even solitary moments when decisions were made that marked and defined a life measured by time.
Will we experience the concept of time in heaven when “our time on earth” is up? What will heaven be like? Often, when there is no other alternative made available to us about great mysteries, we turn to popular explanations passed down through time. Movies, cartoons, and folklore portray heaven as an endless and meaningless time of sitting on clouds and playing harps. We think of the Pearly Gates where we stand in line to see if we did enough good deeds to outweigh the bad. Children are told by uninformed parents that Grandma and Grandpa are now angels who watch over us; in movies we’re asked to believe that some angels have to come back to earth because they didn’t do enough good deeds “to earn their wings.” In the absence of authoritative truth, we seem plenty comfortable to fill in the blanks with our own conjecture.
For believers, the Bible offers God’s authoritative Word on heaven, and yet even turning here there remain many things about heaven we don’t really know. We know from God’s Word that heaven is where God dwells. Have you considered that “Heaven on earth” may be where he dwells in the hearts of his believers? There will be no more death and no more tears in heaven. The old will have passed and the new order come. There will be no need for sun or moon because the “glory of God” will be our light. The way we measure time by our days and nights will be gone. Yet, as we are informed in Revelation 8:1, John’s vision indicated “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” Whether that was John’s concept of time or heaven’s measure of time, we don’t know for sure.
How long will our eternal lives seem? Revelation 6 describes the martyered souls who cry out, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of earth and avenge our blood?” Their plea seems to indicate a sense of time after the end of this life. Revelation 22 speaks of the tree of life that bears fruit every month. With no light of the sun or moon, God himself will be the light that sustains life. We’re told that God reigns forever and ever which also indicates a passing of “timeless time,” quite different from our earthly measures. In the book of Genesis we read “in the beginning” and later on we learn God’s kingdom will not end. It will be timeless. Jesus describes himself as the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. Does “the end” indicate to you an end of time as we know it, or the fulfillment of the time of our lives?
In the end of our search, we find out there are many mysteries of heaven – and God – that we can’t fully understand. We have only God’s Word about it and our own fanciful considerations. I wonder, does this uncertainty unsettle you or give you great hope for an exciting life when God will make “everything new?”
Whatever we we know and don’t know yet, I’m excited about a life of redemption, restoration, and renewal that will go on forever in the presence of the one who created me, accepted me, loved me, and adopted me into his timeless joy. As we spend the time of our earthly lives of toil and frustration and passing celebration, doesn’t it behoove us to ponder on our endless time in heaven’s joy?
“Those who are victorious will inherit all this and I will be their God and they will be my children.” Revelation 21:5-7