“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” (Jesus) John 14:2 NIV
Have you imagined what heaven is like? Of course you have! I love the above quotation from Jesus. He described God having a house–I imagine a really big one!–and Jesus is building a room in it for you and me. The reality proves staggering and incomprehensible to my mind. Nothing on earth compares to it, and that’s an exciting thought.
Martin Luther, the instigator of the Reformation in 1517, made this sage remark: “If our Lord God in this life–in das Sheisshaus–has given us such noble gifts, what will happen in that eternal life, where everything will be perfect and delightful.” You may not be aware that Luther, a brilliant theologian, loved humor and used satire in his writings. The polite translation of “in das Sheisshaus” is “in this toilet”.
He likened earth to a toilet in comparison to heaven. While Luther lived in the 1500s and walked everywhere, he only travelled a few hundred miles from home. However, what a region this is! If you’ve been to Europe, imagine starting in the Bavaria region of Germany and continuing through the Alps into Switzerland, then south through Milan, Bologna, Florence, and eventually to Rome. If you haven’t been here, let me tell you that it’s drop-dead gorgeous. Interestingly, the cities still maintain today much of what Luther saw when he visited them.
Even so, he viewed the best places on earth at the time as a toilet. Of course, I suspect the moral decay of the church and its leadership shaped Luther’s opinion in feeling this way. Regardless, he said that earth is a toilet compared to the perfection and delightfulness of heaven.
One day when we enter heaven and receive our room in God’s house, we’ll discover that Luther was spot-on. We cannot conceive how fabulous heaven is.
What does heaven look like to you?
Prayer: Dear God, thank you Jesus–His life and example, His crucifixion on our behalf, His marvelous resurrection, and His preparation of our heavenly room in Your house. Amen.