Willow Branches in Autumn Winds

Here is the New There

The traditional evangelical idea of heaven is some place that we go to some time after we die. Bell has a different take:

There’s heaven now, somewhere else.

There’s heaven here, sometime else.

And then there’s Jesus’s invitation to heaven

here

and

now,

in this moment,

in this place.

This understanding of heaven really resonates with me. It is not just about what happens when we die. Jesus is inviting us to a life where we can catch glimpses of heaven this side of death.

Isn’t this what Jesus meant when he said in John 17, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”?