Do you want to walk the streets of gold?

Do you want to see your departed loved ones?

Do you want to avoid eternal pain and suffering and live instead in a perpetual paradise?

These are all reasons that people have given me to explain their desire to go to heaven.  The first one might not appeal to you that much, except maybe as a chemistry experiment (how does the soft gold hold up to centuries of foot traffic?).  The second one is the most common answer -- "I want to go where mom is, and I know she's in heaven because she was such a good person."  The third one is a "no duh" answer, which is strange because it is without question the most common means of presenting the Gospel.  Who wouldn't choose an eternity at Disneyland over living in everlasting misery?  Only an insane person would make that choice.  Yet time after time that is how believers present the gospel: "You don't want to go to hell, do you (shaking head)?  You want to go to heaven, don't you (nodding)?"  To which the person invariably answers "yes" and is presented the proper means of receiving their everlasting season pass to the greatest amusement park ever created.

Unfortunately, as appealing as these are, they are not the right answer to the question.  Each of those things is focused on self, when the Bible is clear that all of our lives are to be focused on God.  The reward is exactly that, but it is not tied into our personal satisfaction of receiving things or visiting loved ones -- the reward is that we get to spend eternity with Jesus: looking into His face, worshiping Him, honoring Him.  He is the reason for our desire to go. He is the reason for the whole deal in the first place -- it was all created (by Him) to ultimately honor Him.  Any other motivation or desire constitutes a very dangerous form of idolatry.  Dangerous because it seems like it is expressing the desires of God while it actually elevates myself to the place of prominence.  I have heard people ask, "Won't it be boring after a few millennia?"  The answer is "no," because being in God's presence will never get old and our desire for Him will never wane.

The hymn writer got it right when she said:

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace;
In the mansions bright and blessed
He'll prepare for us a place.

When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We'll sing and shout the victory!

When I sang this song as a younger man, I put the emphasis upon getting to heaven.  I was wrong; the emphasis is upon Jesus.

1. After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things."
2. Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne.
3. And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance.
4. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.
5. Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;
6. and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.
7. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
8. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."
9. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever,
10. the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11. "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."