Back in the 1990s I worked as a Japanese interpreter in Bellefontaine, Ohio. It was a joy to help Japanese families with parent-teacher conferences, doctor visits (even though I was squeamish), and navigating the library and post office. But the day I had to go to the morgue was a different story altogether.
A young Japanese couple and their two little kids were all dead. Murder-suicide. A neighbor friend would have to go identify the bodies, with me alongside to interpret for the authorities. As we entered the morgue, the poor neighbor was overcome. I silently prayed “Lord, please don’t let me faint” as I tried hard to emotionally distance myself in order to focus on the sad task and get out of there.
But somewhere in the back of my mind, this location was registering as familiar, though I’d never been inside this—or any—morgue before.
Later it came to me with a jolt: the completely white/chrome and sterile scene was how Heaven is portrayed in the movies and cartoons. Good grief! No wonder we don’t often talk in terms of “can’t wait to get to Heaven.” The morgue-like portrayal is no enticement whatsoever, being LESS than this earthly life in every way. No color, no laughter, no variety, no activity, no life… Just a sort of bland fog, creepy, cold. Who’d long for that?
And it’s not just me. Nearly 30 years after that morgue incident, I overheard a kindergartner who’d had a nightmare and was looking for comfort from his grandma. He said, “I don’t want to die!… I don’t want to go to Heaven!” At his grandma’s shocked expression, the child added: “It’s just all white.”
It’s understandable that creators of movies and cartoons—even with the marvel of special effects—would have trouble coming up with a portrayal of Heaven that shows, for example, more colors than we know/have now. How can you imagine something that… um, can’t be imagined?
Still, we must remember that Heaven will be MORE than—and better than—everything good that we have in this world. Scripture says God can do “immeasurably more” than what we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (2 Corinthians 2:9; and perhaps that means both in this life and the next). In John 14:2 Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” Revelation 21:11, 21, and elsewhere describe shine, gold, jewels… There’s singing, joy (Revelation 5:8-13; 15:2-4)…
I have no idea what the Lord is going to do in eternity about hummingbirds, swimming, joke books, comfy quilts, college basketball, red roses, or chocolate ice cream. Our limited minds can only imagine that, should there be an absence of those things, Heaven would be less than what this life is. But that can’t be. Life here with the Lord is better than life without him. And whatever the Lord lays out in Heaven, it will be plus not minus. More. Way more.
Let’s make sure we help others (especially children) know what the Lord says about our eternity with him. Heaven: it ain’t the morgue.
