As a doctor, I get to speak with a lot of people about the afterlife (since my job deals frequently with death and dying). And the general consensus is that heaven is a place. Now, this obviously is true. But I think that this “geographical” view of heaven somehow misses something crucial. That is, if we primarily think of heaven as simply a “destination” or an “eternal vacation spot”, we will ironically make something bad out of heaven—it will become like an idol to us. And we will forget that the most beautiful and glorious part of heaven will not be the “palm trees and beaches” but rather something eternally more wonderful—God himself! He will be our bright morning star (Rev. 22:16). He will be our eternal light (John 1:4). He will be our consummate joy and satisfaction (Psalm 16:11). He will be the one who wipes away every tear from our eyes (Rev 21:4). And he will be the very object of our every affections, thoughts, creativity, and passion. Heaven, I believe, really centers around a Person rather than a place.Do you want to go to heaven? Then make sure that the treasure of your life is the Person and not the place. If you treasure only the place, you will get neither. If you treasure the Person, you will get both.
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