I know that Toledo, Ohio, where I was a little boy, is not heaven. It’s just that in some ways, it’s the closest to heaven I’ve been. I also realize that our family home in El Cajon, brimming with grandchildren, is not quite heaven. But when we’re all together enjoying a Thanksgiving feast, I think God is showing me how He feels about gathering all of His beloved children around Him. Someday I’ll know exactly what it’s like to be God’s child living in His home, and having my family all around me.

In our deepest cravings, we are hearing the still, small voice of God slipping in through the din and clamor of our lives and saying, “Come and see! Come and enjoy what I’ve prepared for you!”

So, will heaven be boring? Solemn? Will it be the place that Huckleberry Finn wanted to avoid at all costs? Absolutely not! It will be a deeper, fuller, and more exhilarating gladness than you or I can even begin to fathom. David sensed the real truth when he wrote, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4 NIV).

Heaven will be the answer to the deepest longings in your heart. It will be what you and I have really wanted all our lives, the object of that intense, unidentified desire that we could never fully articulate. Only in heaven will we finally feel the completeness that we were created to enjoy! Christian psychologist Mark McMinn explains,

However messed up our abnormal world may be, the story is not over yet. The Christian story is ultimately a comedy and not a tragedy; it ends as it began. Someday, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Birds will really sing. Lions and lambs will tumble and play in grass that is truly green. Our bodies won’t be riddled with wrinkles, muscle spasms and cancer. There will be pure joy and beauty and goodness. And God, who longs to be with us, will walk with us in the Garden.

That may sound frightening or intimidating now—but it won’t then. No ecstasy in this broken world will ever compare with our joy then, as we walk with God. We will be home. And it won’t just be a story about a prodigal son or daughter who could never be good enough to earn God’s favor. It will be a story about a loving God who delights in offering lavish, exuberant love. The depth of God’s love will be seen everywhere.30