What Heaven Promises Us Is God

When we’re unsettled, when we feel insecure, when the immediate future seems threatened, we reach for hope. Politicians campaign on it; advertisers use it to sell their wares; loved ones whisper of it to ease our troubled hearts. But, as with faith, it is the object of our hope that gives it strength. In Remember Heaven: Meditations of the World to Come for Life in the Meantime, Matthew McCullough leads us through a series of reflections intended to fix our hope on something sure and real: heaven. 

The apt subtitle reveals a book that is less an academic exploration of the doctrine of final state and more a series of reflections on what awaits us after the end of the age. McCullough writes from a pastor’s perspective, thinking of real people struggling through the real world. This is a book I would recommend to someone in my congregation who has received a distressing diagnosis or to someone beginning their adult life alone. These, and all of us really, need to have our minds fixed on things above and settle our hope in our bright, promised future. That’s McCullough's goal. 

Yet, as a pastor, his strength revealed a minor weakness. I felt he sometimes dwelt too long on illustrating or explaining a theological point. For example, in chapter 4, he carefully leads us through the tremendous promises of 1 Peter 1:3-5. He’s already given us a view of eternity in previous chapters, so he didn't need to tie these promises to Revelation 21 in this chapter. This weakness likely comes from the author’s desire to lead people to find comfort in Christ. In the end, it's a point worth noting, but I don’t think it detracts from the book’s overall effectiveness.  

While it isn’t an academic work, it is not devoid of theology. My initial concern was that “heaven” might be treated as a final, spiritual, body-less destination as it tends to be in pop culture. However, McCullough uses “heaven” in its more robust, biblical context: 

“By heaven I don't mean a spiritual place as opposed to the material world we live in now. Rather, I mean the world to come as opposed to the world as it is. I don't mean a bodiless cloud land our souls fly to when we die. I mean the sum total of all that God has promised us for our ultimate future.” 

This is the heaven that Christians are hoping for. This is a future that doesn’t sound boring, but one rooted in promise. This is the only heaven that bears the weight of our deepest longings. Remember Heaven helps us not just identify the right answer but to feel it and want it. What heaven promises us is God.