Aurora heard stories about it for days before she ever saw the indoor waterpark for herself. The idea of a “Water Slide” became a structure of mythic proportions in her three-year old mind, one she longed for us to vividly paint with each waterpark-themed bedtime story she kept asking us to tell. 

One of the special things about raising kids is knowing before you’re about to introduce them to a big first. Their first snowball fight. First zoo visit. First waterpark. Each time, their ever-expanding world is about to irreversibly add another solar system of experience—another category of discovery they never considered before. And, many times, you get to give it to them. Part of the joy—for the giver and the receiver—is that the utterly new experience is something the child simply could not have seen coming. 

Some of these introductions might even benefit from a bit of storytelling beforehand. I trust that allowing Aurora to use her imagination to anticipate this modest 36-hour vacation helped her more fully experience everything her mother and I hoped our time would be. 

We owe no less an inspired anticipation to where our Heavenly Father say’s we’re headed. 

Imagining Heaven

For some reason, I’ve always been resistant to constructing mental images of myself in some kind of celestial city, surrounded by Biblical heroes and the other faithful departed. I don’t know if I should glorify this hesitation of mine, but I do want to let it always point me to the greater image of eternity to magnify: union with Christ.

The ultimate satisfaction of our souls isn’t achieved by a permanent spiritual vacation in halls of hallowed fame; it’s met in a Person. A Person who is Path, Guide, and Destination—all of himself. 

Christ is God’s “amen.” Jesus is the satisfaction of our hearts’ most poignant desires. Jesus is the understanding behind each of the songs that make me cry without knowing why. Jesus is the fulfilment of the longing for the fairy tale ending. 

What if aesthetic moments like these were God’s “stories” about “where” we’re headed? What if the songs that give us chills, the moments that make us cheer, the laughter that brings us to tears—what if those were just an anticipation of what Arriving will be like?

Heaven is the place where we’re headed, and Earth is full of “bedtime stories” like these to let our imaginations know what it will be like to live there. 

Arriving at Him

God gives us many good gifts. None could be so good as the full gift of himself in his son, Jesus. To be reunited with God in Christ is a destination so full and wonderful and perfect, that I don’t think our Heavenly Father could be content only to say, “It’s coming someday; wait for it.” 

I believe the fore-echoes of what we can expect to resound in our hearts when we enter eternity are meant to be heard here, listened to now. Wherever love resonates, I want my imagination to wind up in all its colors to paint vivid versions of the bliss of Christ’s forever family. 

None of our pictures will be quite right. I doubt Aurora envisioned her legendary Water Slide with much accuracy; I knew that she wouldn’t. And that didn’t matter to me. I saw just how much more she loved the real thing—just like I knew she would. 

The One who we’re headed for is so much better than even our best bedtime stories could ever risk to imagine.