What is Your Heaven?

When I was a little girl, I used to think that heaven would be a place of white clouds and golden streets where we could eat candy, cake and potato chips all day and play and we never had to do chores. I would think that everyone wore a white robe and had wings and a halo. I often hear people describe 'their heaven' in a similar vein.

For example:
I have heard heaven described as a golf course.
I have heard heaven described as a place where things that are sins here on earth will be allowed in heaven (think along the vein of '72 virgins') .
I have heard heaven described as a place where only the people who are 'right' will be.
I have heard heaven descirbed as a place where we won't experience any pain and will all look any way we want.
I have heard heaven described as a place where we won't be around the people we hate.

etc.

I find it interesting that as I got older, I went through a period of time thinking, "Gee, that heaven sounds kind of boring, in fact, it sounds more like hell to me."

Then recently, I looked at what these versions of 'heaven' had in common were aspects of selfishness...the 7 deadly sins: pride, vanity, lust, greed, envy, gluttony, laziness.

In the Lord's Prayer, it says Thy Kingdom Come early on and toward the end it says For Thine IS the Kingdom. If God is the Kingdom and we are praying for Him to come to us, then isn't heaven the complete presence of God with us? Where can sin exist if God is fully present? How can we possibly conceive what heaven really is when our perception of what is 'good' is skewed by our physical desires for what is not good for us or for our fellow man? In all reality, isn't heaven the place that God knows the deepest desires of our spirits and He gives us that? I am not referring to what we think we want, I mean the deepest inner desires that we even hide from ourselves.

So...where do these concepts of heaven that are traditionally expressed come from? Are they scriptural, but misunderstood? Are they from other faiths? Is it a combination?

For example: the streets of gold (Revelation 21:21
The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.)

Is that literally a picture of heaven or is it an example of what we will place value upon in heaven?

I am reminded of the joke about the rich man who asked God to be allowed to bring something from his life upon earth when he died and arrived at the 'Pearly Gates' . God agreed to allow him whatever he could fit in one suitcase. The man joyfully sold all he possessed and had it converted to gold, then purchased the largest suitcase he could and filled it with the gold he had purchased.

Upon his death, when arriving at the 'Pearly Gates', St. Peter was waiting and quite aware of the 'bargain' the man had struck with God. He waited with bated breath to find out what the man had decided to bring.

When the man opened the case to show him, St. Peter looked at him in confusion and asked him, "Why did you bring pavement?"

I find this 'joke' to be theologically interesting for several reasons.

1) The God described in this joke made a bargain with the man that helped him learn a valuable lesson. That reminded me of the book of Job and God making a 'bargain' with Satan with all of his wisdom that involved a learning experience.

2) What perspective do we view heaven from...an earthly perspective or a spiritual perspective?

While I am unable to use my vocabulary limited by my flesh to describe heaven, I imagine heaven to be immersed in God and his eternal love. I cannot imagine anything more heavenly than that.

God bless you.