What will heaven be like and will our pets be there?
For Meditation (Corey Widmer)
When we asked our kids to submit their theological questions, so many of them asked questions about heaven. And about half of their questions about heaven were also about pets and animals! Their questions are full of amazing curiosity and imaginative exctement about eternal life. Their questions also reveal ideas about heaven that they have picked up from us adults that may be shaped less by the Bible and more by evangelical art, stories and extra-biblical ideas.
As we seek to answer this question, we are exploring the nature of Christian hope. What is our hope? What is the end of the Christian story? What is our final destination, and will our pets be included in it? As we dig into the biblical story, we see that heaven is not where we will be for all eternity, but is that realm in our creation where God currently dwells and where our souls are with Jesus when we die. But what all the saints and all creation are looking forward to is the day of resurrection when God will redeem creation and unite heaven and earth again as it was united in Eden (Rev 21:1–5). As we say in the Nicene creed, “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” That is our hope. And that hope is deeply material, earthy, and includes even our animal friends. Nothing good that God has created, even our pets, will be lost; everything sad and evil will be removed, and everything beautiful will be restored and redeemed.
As you prepare for worship this Sunday, consider the following:
Why do you think so many children (and adults!) long to know if their pets will be in heaven? What does that say about the kind of God we hope for?
What has shaped your view of heaven—Scripture, popular culture, or something else? How has your understanding changed over time?
What parts of God’s creation do you most hope to see redeemed and restored in the world to come?—Read Isaiah 11:6–9 . What stands out to you in this vision of peace? How does it contrast with our current world?
How does knowing that our ultimate hope is resurrection and new creation—not just “going to heaven”—change how you live now?
Isaiah 11:6–9
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
Revelation 12:1–5
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.