What No Eye Has Seen

There is a place where all the wrongs of this word are made right. We call it Heaven. 
It is that place where everything taken away from us is restored. 
Where relationships that have ended will start anew. 
Where we are made whole again. 
Where all our sad tears are turned into tears of joy, relief, and gratefulness. 
That place is called Heaven. It is a real place. It is a place God made for us, to live for all eternity. It is a place of absolute perfection, wholeness and peace. It is there we rest from our labors. It is there we are reunited with loved ones. It is there we finally live in the presence of our gracious and loving Father. 
It has been described as a glorious city with streets of gold, as perpetual light, as our eternal reward, as a “mansion over the hilltop,” and in Kevin Kostner’s movie Field of Dreams, as “the place where dreams come true.” On the cross, Jesus described it to a thief in one word: “paradise.” It is all of that, and more. It may be impossible to overstate Heaven’s beauty and perfection. The apostle Paul wrote, “‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’— the things God has prepared for those who love him…” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV). 
Maybe you were encouraged not to be so “Heavenly minded” that you are “no earthly good.” If you were, you were misguided. It is our right to dream, to imagine; to anticipate the place that will be our home for all eternity. The Christian life is a life lived in full expectation of Heaven. And almost all aspects of Christian discipleship point to it. Holy Communion (aka The Lord’s Supper) is a foretaste of the Heavenly banquet we will share in God’s Heavenly Kingdom. Christian fellowship is an expression of communion of all the Saints in glory. Christian action stands as an expression of our prayer for God’s will to be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. The wise King Solomon was correct when he observed, “[God] has … set eternity in the human heart…” Ecclesiastes 3:11b (NIV). The more Heavenly-minded we are, the more earthly good we become! 
Perhaps you were taught that Heaven is real, but that we can’t know much about what Heaven is like. That’s not true either. The Bible tells us a great deal about our eternal future. It describes Heaven as a place of rest, where we are reunited with our loved ones, where our aging bodies are replaced with new ones, where we celebrate the victory of love over hate, and where we see God face to face. Within the pages of this book, you will find a description of Heaven as the Scripture reveals it. 
Finally, you may believe in Heaven, but you may have come to believe you can’t really know if you will get in. The fact that so many people believe they can only “hope” to go to Heaven is disappointing to me – and, I believe, to God, especially when you consider everything God did to give us assurance. This is such an important issue, that I have saved it for the last chapter of the book. 
I invite you to learn, to laugh, to cry, to find hope and assurance, and to realize we do not need to be afraid; in fact, we have a lot to look forward to. The more real Heaven is to you, the more your heart will yearn for that place. The guide at the back contains Bible studies you can do on your own or with a small group of friends, that will give you the opportunity to consider the ways we can experience Heaven’s joys here on earth. Anticipate and your future, and be thankful in advance for that “eternal house in Heaven, not built by human hands” 2 Corinthians 5:1b (NIV).