Is Heaven for Real?

I remember the day I felt heaven kiss earth.

I stood next to my youngest daughter, desperately praying for faith to believe what I could not see. I stood welcoming person after person offering condolences, sharing tears as each passed by her tiny casket. My body stood, but my mind? It swirled with questions and uncertainties, attempting to grasp the wisp of reality that eluded me.

How was I going to survive her death? 

Was she really gone or was she somewhere else?

Was heaven for real?

Stories played like movies through my mind after my sweet girl died. Stories I studied in Scripture. Stories I had read to her. Like flipping through a Rolodex, I longed to find that ONE—THE story that would satisfy my longing for truth.

Perhaps you’re scanning this page and the scene tickles a memory as you picture a different casket. Or maybe heaven feels like it’s a breath away as someone you love lies dying, or maybe that someone is you.

You yearn to know what comes next. Is there something more? Something after we breathe our final breath? Or is this all there is, this world in which we live? It feels as if you’re grasping at smoke and the truth is slipping through your fingers.

Here is what I know to be true as I faced death and looked it squarely in the eye: Death is not the end. There is more, oh, so much more. This, sweet one, this place where our feet touch the ground…this is not our home. This air we breathe and sights we see…these are but a taste of what is to come.

How do I know?

I believe the Bible is true and the Bible says that heaven is where God lives.

“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.” (Acts 7:49a, NLT)

“The Lord’s home reaches up to the heavens, while its foundation is on the earth.” (Amos 9:6a, NLT)

“Lord, look down from heaven; look from your holy, glorious home, and see us.” (Isaiah 63:15, NLT)

The Bible says that heaven is our home, as well.

“There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”

John 14:2-3, NLT

We can be confident that heaven is our home by choosing to believe.“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9, NLT)

“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6, NLT)

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1:9, NLT)

Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit as a taste of heaven on earth.“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.”(Romans 8:23, NLT)

I remember

I remember that moment when heaven kissed earth as I stood next to my precious little girl for the last time. Deep in my spirit, as those questions and uncertainties tangled with the broken pieces of my heart, God answered my desperate plea as He whispered…peace, my sweet child. This is not the end. There is more…so much more…trust me…you will see.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.’”

(Revelation 21:1-3, NLT)

Do you believe that heaven is real?