WHAT IS MISSING IN HEAVEN?

The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell is a very popular and sentimental children's book sometimes read on Christmas since it involves a young angel in heaven presenting the Christ child with his precious box filled with “treasures” he had collected while on earth. The box seems like a rather humble offering, but God transforms it into the Star of Bethlehem.

I know that it is only a children's book, but it is usually read to them by adults, who might very well take its portrayal of eternal life with God as really representing what the Bible has to say. The whole premise is based on the faulty idea that those who die turn into angels. That idea appears absolutely nowhere in Scripture, which almost always contrasts angels with human beings, dead or alive. In fact, I believe that the only place in which they are actually compared to one another is in Luke 20:34-35 where Jesus says that those in heaven will not marry or be given in marriage, in commonality with the angels.

But the problems only begin with that point. First we must ignore the fact that what is apparently being pictured in the book is apparently some sort of waiting place, certainly not the new heaven and new earth of Revelation. That distinction is probably overlooked even by those adults reading the book. I do know that even Mark Twain made fun of such a concept of lifeless and joyless eternal existence floating among the clouds while strumming on a harp.

In fact, the heaven pictured by Tazewell would be sheer hell to most people since it is defined not by the few things which are there (lots of clouds, dreary required periods of choir practice and mandatory prayers), but almost exclusively by what is missing. The littlest angel has no friends with whom to play, no streams or mountains or meadows or pets or toys. He isn't even blessed with a decent singing voice. And the only colors in his heaven appear to be gold and perhaps blue. In fact, this angel's fondest wish is to have his little box restored to him containing his reminders of the good times he used to have on earth. And the author even states that Jesus Himself will regret having to leave earth to return to heaven.

In stark contrast, let us turn to the biblical image found in the Revelation 21-22 for a true picture, albeit one presented using images, of the New Jerusalem, the ultimate dwelling place for the chosen. Some critics have zeroed in on the sparseness of details we are given, other than the obvious profusion of gold and precious jewels everywhere, in order to satirize our promised eternal dwelling as a place about as boring as the picture that Tazewell paints.

But what if instead we concentrate on what is lacking in the biblical “heaven” of the last two chapters of the final book of the Bible. If we do, we will see that our life in God's very presence will not include:

    any crying or mourning (Rev. 21:4)

    any death (Rev. 21:4)

    any persistent and unrepentant wrongdoers (21:8,27; 22:15)

    any buildings within which to worship since God and the Lamb are its temple (21:22)

    any moon or sun since the light will be the light of God and the Lamb (21:23; 22:5)

    any night (21:25; 22:5)

    any illness (22:2)

    anything cursed (22:3)

Getting back to The Littlest Angel, note that its imagery is based on the mistaken notion of confusing the “heavens” that we see in the atmosphere and God's present dwelling place in Heaven (also sometimes known as the third heaven or the seventh heaven) and God's eventual place on a renewed earth, as pictured in Revelation. So rather than starting with nothing but clouds and blue sky and then adding a few minor amenities, as Tazewell does, instead we would be much closer to the truth if we started with all the glories of physical earth as we now know it (minus all forms of evil, both material and spiritual) and picturing the heavenly glories that will be added to it when the New Jerusalem descends to earth.

The only hitch that I personally see to such an approach is in having to admit that Revelation 21:1 states that the sea will be no more. I am not alone, I am sure, in enjoying the beach very much. Thus, this does seem like a giant step backward from our present existence. But if we treat the sea as an image of chaotic forces, as do most commentators, then even that makes sense.