As a child, heaven had me worried. I thought it would be difficult to fight off boredom for more than 10 minutes if I had to pluck a harp while perched on my private cloud. An eternity of that sounded like hell to me …

We all know moments when it’s hard to find the words to describe a great experience in this life. Descriptions of heaven can never be more than signposts, straining at the limits of language to give us hints of eternity. The Bible’s pictures of life beyond the grave are wide ranging; it would not be surprising if some capture your imagination more than others. Here’s a sampler.

Heavenly garden

The word ‘paradise’ came originally from a Persian word, meaning a garden. The Jews naturally connected thoughts of paradise with the Garden of Eden. And so heaven came to be thought of as paradise restored. (Muslims developed the same theme,often describing paradise as a beautiful oasis in the desert.)

Heaven as a garden speaks of beauty, fragrance, vitality, harmony and fertility. A great garden is filled with delights for the senses. Gardens can also set a new mood and take us out of ourselves: many feel a sense of peace or serenity in a garden that is hard to find in busy lives. Small wonder the old saying about feeling closer to God in a garden than anywhere else in the world. As one gardener at RHS Wisley said recently in a TV interview: “There’s new beauty every day. It’s like working in heaven.”

Heavenly city

Heaven is also described as a city, the new Jerusalem. While some people love city life, for others cities mean traffic congestion, air pollution, constant noise, extremes of wealth and poverty and a constant sense of danger. There’s an English tradition of setting the country and the city in opposition. If you’re a country person, you think the best thing about a city is seeing it in your rear view mirror as you head for home. The Bible writers knew about the dark side of cities, and so Babylon came to represent the city as a centre of self-centred power opposed to God, moral goodness and the people of God.

So what’s good about cities? At their best they are centres of excellence, notably in the arts and education, places of personal growth. A city also symbolises community: heaven is not an isolated experience, but is filled with strong relationships and a deep sense of belonging. In the ancient world a city was also a place of refuge and safety. When the city gates shut at night, wolves and brigands were locked outside. Even so,the city of heaven is the ultimate and eternal place of safety.

Heavenly arts festival

Heaven is also a place of creativity. John’s vision of the new Jerusalem includes elaborate descriptions of glorious gemstones set in the walls, with gates made of pearl and streets paved with gold. The city is adorned with nothing but the best and the most beautiful. Heaven is presented as the ultimate centre of the visual arts. And it resounds with the finest of music and song. Heaven is the eternal city of culture. It will be a feast for the senses, the mind and the heart.

Heavenly banquet

Arts city is also gourmet city. Jesus spoke of a heavenly banquet where he would enjoy fine wine with heaven’s new citizens. The pleasures of food and drink and the delight of sharing a meal with friends will be multiplied in heaven.

Heavenly bodies

Jesus’ resurrection body gives us several clues about life beyond the grave. It will be life in another dimension, since Jesus could walk through walls back on this earth. But it will definitely be life with a body, since the risen Jesus could touch and be touched. He could even enjoy a cooked breakfast. (Presumably there is no cholesterol problem with a resurrection body!)

Resurrection life, then is physical, but in a new dimension. Heavenly existence will certainly not be disembodied, but clothed with a new kind of body. I once said that means there’ll be no dentists in heaven. What I meant, of course, was not that dentists will be excluded but that there’ll be no tooth decay. We’ll enjoy all the benefits of bodily existence without the ageing process.

Heavenly relationships

Only in heaven will we know and love God as we are known and loved by God, delighting in God’s eternal presence. Augustine celebrated the beatific vision: our delight will be the radiance of God, and in him we will find everlasting peace. The eternal love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit will draw us into their circle of perfection.

Heavenly freedom

New Testament writers also help us understand something of heaven by identifying what won’t be there. There will be no suffering, no injustice, no sorrow, no death. The cancer of sin will have been removed from the patient and we will enter the freedom of fulfilling our potential in love. Something else will also be missing: there’ll be no church or temple in heaven. John explains that God’s availability makes a temple superfluous. Now that’s what I call promising: imagine God’s presence freely among us, and no religion too!

Heavenly transformation

Paul worked hard to convey how much better than this life will be heaven and our resurrection bodies. This life is like a seed that must die to release the better life to come. This life is perishable and weak; the resurrection body is imperishable and raised in power. Many people think of the after-life as a pale and shadowy thing, a fading echo of life on earth. Not so, says the New Testament. Earthly existence is the insubstantial time: now is the caterpillar, then will be the butterfly.

Heavenly grace

The only passport to heaven is the mercy of Christ. No one works their passage, but all who enter will have been saved by grace. That means heaven will be characterised by three qualities: the extraordinary generosity of God, the equality in grace and love of all its citizens, and their grateful thanks to Christ who has won eternal bliss for the undeserving. At the centre of John’s vision of heaven is the Lamb of God. Crucified, risen and reigning on high, he is the light of the city and the focus of delight and worship.

These pictures of heaven provide no more than hints of a higher dimension of living. Heaven is sure to be filled with surprises, but two things are certain: it will be a life centred upon the glorious presence of God and Christ’s way of self-giving love; and we will be more alive than we have ever been on earth.

Shaped by the future

Since heaven is free from all injustice, ignorance and suffering, campaigns for justice and freedom from oppression are a natural expression of heavenly hope. We want to build something of heaven on earth. We should also want to affirm those working in health and education for they express heavenly priorities in their public service. It should not surprise us if the church produces more than its fair share of nurses, doctors and teachers, for their work is sure to convey glimpses of heaven.

Since heaven is the ultimate liberation city, freed from the tyranny of sin, the best way to prepare for heaven is to express its ways on earth. We all have faults that still require divine surgery, but I sometimes meet Christians who make a virtue out of being unpleasant. When I hear of egos demanding to be stroked, petty rivalries being pursued, opponents being misrepresented, grievances being nursed and anger being poured out, I have a simple question: where is Jesus in the follies of his church?

Christians have often found it easier to behave like the Pharisees than to imitate Christ. Negative religion needs a spiritual health warning: it invites us to look down on everyone else, with a finger eager to point in accusation, a mouth quick to speak in judgment, and a heart cold as stone. Since heaven is about the perfection of self-giving love, we can prepare ourselves for future transformation by learning to express more love, forgiveness and encouragement in the present. Churches are meant to provide a foretaste of heaven. The ways of the Pharisees give us foretastes of hell.

I heard about a coach trip of American clergy at Niagara who were not allowed into Canada until they surrendered their hand guns to the Canadian authorities. Some Christians will be shocked to discover their most cherished negative attitudes have to be abandoned at the door of heaven.

Tasting the future

If heaven had no place for gardens, cities, communities, the arts and banquets, we might conclude that really spiritual people would be indifferent to all such “worldly pleasures”. But when the Bible uses these pictures of heaven, that means our future hope can transform how we value life today. You don’t have to like gardening, cities or the arts, but if you do, enjoy them with God. Our present pleasures can provide anticipations of heaven.

Since heaven is about enjoying relationships and meals, we can discover more of God by making time for one another. One group of Christians decided that their church needed “more meals, less meetings”. That’s what I call a heavenly priority! Enjoying one another’s companionship in a community of love gives a better foretaste of heaven than any committee. If the ways we live as a local church do not promote an abundant overflow of love, it’s time for some heavenly changes of priority. If we’re going to spend eternity together, now is a good time to start growing in love.

What’s true of meals is true of the arts. In John’s vision of heaven, the city walls were extravagantly beautiful. Their beauty was sufficient in itself: no need for a Bible verse on a day-glo poster every 10 metres. Christian enjoyment of the arts does not have to be narrowly religious or propagandist. If your calling is religious art, pursue it to the best of your ability. If your creativity flows in non-religious streams, serve God in those arenas.

Some suggest that art galleries have become the new cathedrals, where people take delight in beauty and feel lifted out of themselves. Christians who enjoy galleries not only share that enjoyment, but can also involve God. Every kind of artistic expression and appreciation can provide moments of encounter with God and a foretaste of heaven.

The same is true of gardening. It used to be a closed book to me. Telling a weed from a flower was a complete mystery, and if I did plant anything it was sure to die within weeks. Now I’m hooked. Gardening has become relaxing, rewarding, and a place of God awareness; I’m better at praying in a garden or open country than in any church building.

The biblical picture of heaven as a garden pushes me a step further. Westerners have tended to see gardening as no more than a secular hobby, for those who like that sort of thing. Western gardens have tended to be thought of as spiritual places only in a vague sense. Muslims have retained a tradition of paradise gardens: places of great beauty and serenity, deliberately designed to help people sense God and catch a taste of heaven. Their thinking about gardens seems more creative and biblical than ours.

Christians have lost confidence in the biblical tradition of paradise gardens. Weed strewn graveyards, overgrown shrubs or a few bedding plants do not a paradise garden make. This prompts a practical response. Why should the Muslims have all the best paradise gardens? And how could your garden – or your church garden – become a signpost to spirituality, a foretaste of heaven, a place of God awareness?

Integrated living

So heaven will be like a garden, a city, an arts festival and a banquet. Sounds a lot more fun than being perched on a cloud. Heaven is presented not as an eternal church service, but rather as a totally integrated way of living, in which every pleasure and delight is connected to Christ and infused with his love.

Since heaven will be filled with so much pleasure and beauty, enjoyment and community, maybe that’s part of what Jesus had in mind when he promised life in all its fullness. In John’s gospel, eternal life doesn’t begin after death, it begins when we put our trust in Christ. So when is the best time to start enjoying heavenly living, to pursue heavenly priorities and to express heavenly love? Right here, right now. If we get excited enough about heaven, and discover a lifestyle filled with heavenly foretastes, perhaps we’ll even want to tell others about it too. Or perhaps heaven ’s presence will be so attractive upon us that they’ll start to ask questions. Confidence in heaven may even give us courage to be better witnesses on earth.

As I concluded this reflection on heaven, I wrote out a quick summary on a post-it note and stuck it on my computer. Perhaps it will help you too.

"Live with heavenly priorities. Savour heaven ’s foretastes. Enjoy this life as much as you can. But remember: the best is yet to be."