What Does Heaven Look Like?

We all hear the stories of how Heaven is so beautiful and colorful, sparkly, blissful, and all the other happy adjectives that go with it. However, every once in a while I can’t help but wonder if, after a while, it will become just a “norm,” something that we’ll take for granted as we humans sometimes tend to do.

I have recently returned from my annual trip to the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Most times I visit there, my view of the majestic landscape is obstructed by trees. But, the cabin we rented this year had a pretty nice view of the mountainous landscape.

Upon first glance, it was just “nice.” I began to think that it looks the same every year, and I wasn’t much impressed. I consciously recognized how I was beginning to take the view for granted having visited there so many times. And when I am aware that I am doing so, I remind myself that I need to “take time along the way to smell the flowers,” to slow down and to make a greater effort to appreciate God’s creation for what it is—a gift to us.

As the weekend passed by, each view of that same mountain range was different every time I looked at it—whether it be mid-day, sunny and clear, or raining in parts of the valley while not in others. “Smokey” clouds filling the basins; or the sun setting behind the range, at times appearing as if there were ravenous burning wild fires.

On the last morning, so much fog filled in the valley that, to a first time vacationer, could have easily been mistaken for the shore of an ocean.

I was in awe of the assortment of stunning picturesque views that I was able to witness in the short span of four days! And I was once again reminded that God’s gifts never get boring. And if we can experience that little taste of Heaven on earth, I have no doubt that our eternal home will be magnificent and perpetually exhilarating.

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Photos: Sharon Lape

About the Author

Sharon Lape

Sharon Lape is both the permissions manager and the editorial assistant in the periodicals department at Franciscan Media. She also researches and provides content for the popular Minute Meditations feature. Sharon is a wife and a mother of four children.