Have you ever worried that heaven might be really uninteresting?  Lots of singing and pretty things, angels and other creatures crying, “Holy, holy, holy” all the time.  Good food and no pain and all.  But what do you do for excitement?

Twice in the last week I have heard or read concerns about the quality of life in an envisioned heaven.

From the song “Broken White Line” by Kris Delmhorst, about her friend who died too early:   “And I hope that you won’t rest in peace because that would bore you right to tears”

From the book Forever Rumpole ( p187), a collection of humorous short stories about an English criminal defense barrister: “It seems to me that a world without evil might possibly be a damned dull world – or an undammed dull world, perhaps I should say – and it would certainly be a world which would leave Rumpole without an occupation.”

To combat the concern, remember two key concepts about heaven vis-à-vis life here on earth.

First, the curse of sin (Genesis 3.14-19) has us all discombobulated.  All the people, all our relationships and work, all of creation, all our senses are affected negatively. We don’t perceive reality as well as Adam and Eve did before the Fall.   We can’t even imagine the splendor and sumptuousness when sin is abolished in heaven.

Second, God’s glory and grandeur are more than we can bear right now. When Isaiah (Isaiah 6), John (Revelation 1), and others caught just a glimpse of God in heaven, they had to fall on their knees in fear and awe.  Paul prays for his friends to get to know God better (Ephesians 1.16), partly because our time here on earth is prep time to get ready for the beauty and brilliance, the wisdom and wonder of knowing the LORD fully in heaven.

The two concepts are summarized, somewhat cryptically, in 1 Corinthians 13.12: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.”