Thoughts On Heaven From A Ten-Year-Old

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
1 Corinthians 2:9

On a rainy Monday morning during summer break, as I was driving my son to his play rehearsal, we came upon a road that sometimes floods. As we approached, we talked about that possibility, and he joked, “Well, if we die, we’ll learn our lesson! And if we die, we won’t do it again because we’ll be in heaven.”

He continued by pointing out that in heaven we don’t need cars. “We can probably just teleport or something.”

I replied, “But in heaven, we’ll always be where we want to be.”

He proposed an alternative view. “But you might be in the arcade and then you want to go to the donut shop.”

I smiled thinking for a moment about how pointless arcades and donut shops would be in heaven. Being in the presence of God will be all we want. I said, “Do you think maybe in heaven we won’t care about things like arcades and donuts so much because in heaven, somehow, everything will be even better than those things, even though right now we can’t imagine how?”

Somewhat overlooking my point he replied, “Yeah, in heaven the donuts will taste even better!”

Now, in our town, the very best donuts come from a locally owned shop with the simple name, “Best Donuts.” My son said that in heaven we wouldn’t just have “Best Donuts.” We would have “Best Heavenly Donuts.” I laughed in agreement, unable to think of a better name for heaven’s donut shop.

Then he added, “And if you go to H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks, when you bite into a donut, it’s poison, or it has spikes in it, or cockroaches come out of it and you end up eating a cockroach!”

We were still debating whether cockroaches would be in heaven or hell or possibly both (he had a theory on that) when we pulled up to the theater. “Love you!” he called over his shoulder as he jumped out of the car and ran through the rain with his script tucked underneath his shirt.

What will heaven be like? It’s natural that kids imagine heaven as a place where you have everything you want, just the way you want it. But as we mature we should probably be inching away from that notion.

The joy we will have in heaven is not primarily based on the happiness of being with loved ones or the pleasure of games and snacks. Joy in heaven is centered around worshiping God in His direct presence.

If that sounds boring to you, or if it seems disappointing, like a bait-and-switch, don’t feel too bad. It is in fact very hard— impossible, Paul says —to imagine how it will be. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him,” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Having everything we want is the heaven that we CAN imagine. The real heaven will be something we can’t imagine; something even better than having the things we want here.

Here on earth we so rarely get exactly what we want, yet that tends to be what we pursue. If we knew of something better than getting what we want, would we pursue that instead?

In heaven we won’t be in these physical bodies. We’ll be in our best “spiritual bodies,” bearing the image of the best “heavenly Man,” Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:44, 49). And I don’t think a spiritual body is going to crave donuts or get bored and want to go to the arcade. A spiritual body is going to crave spiritual delights.

But spiritual delights are not restricted to heaven. As we walk more and more in the Spirit and not after the flesh, perhaps we can begin to understand in this life, on a very small scale, the “life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6) that we will have in heaven.

For now, I find myself thankful for the blessing of having a ten-year-old son who thinks about heaven and keeps his play script dry under his shirt as he runs in the rain.

Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for all the physical blessings and pleasures of earthly life. But please change my heart so that it craves spiritual joy more and more. Give me a longing just to be in Your presence, through worship and fellowship now, and for eternity in heaven through Christ’s sacrifice. I praise You, Almighty God, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

by Christie Cole Atkins