We can only know about heaven by reading the Bible. Even then, there is much that we cannot know about our future home. If we love and serve God, we will trust Him with all the details. And we believe that heaven will be far more impressive than we could ever imagine.

While our world is awash in hatred, heaven only has love. The Bible says that there is no pain, suffering, or death there. As heaven’s residents we will know no gossip, slander, separation, or one faction fighting another. Everyone in heaven will embrace God and His united community.

Many refer to their friends and relatives as going to heaven upon death. They talk about them passing from this life to heaven but have little idea of the place to which they refer. Myth, fantasy, paganism, and conjecture have helped people form mistaken ideologies about heaven.

The popular cupid which depicts a cherub and is often used to represent Valentine’s Day has no connection to godly love and hence heaven. February 14’s holiday is merely a feel-good day to celebrate romantic love and boost the economy. Like other things tied to Christianity, people try to associate it with faith, when it holds little substance to genuine Christianity.

The ushering in of the Lenten season, those forty days that various Christian denominations use to prepare for the commemoration of Jesus’s death and resurrection, has more to do with belief in Jesus, but it is still extra-biblical, meaning that Lent is not biblically instituted or instructed.

February 17 this week was Shrove Tuesday (Pancake or Fat Tuesday). Shrove Tuesday also refers to Mardi Gras, a day of partying that goes way beyond using up the remaining fat that is in the pantry to make pancakes.

Pancake Day is followed by Ash Wednesday, a solemn day, the first day of Lent, which is practiced by the Roman Catholic Church (and by others who follow Western Christian traditions). Ash Wednesday is a holy day. Adherents repent of their sins and are marked with ash in the sign of the cross on their foreheads in preparation of the 40-day fast before Easter.

Christians who do not celebrate Ash Wednesday or Lent may believe that they must always repent of their sin and not just on one special day or season. They refer to the Bible’s clear direction for believers to always show humility in prayer and fasting (Matt. 6:1-18).

Every week holds moments and special days that are linked to memories of past events. Today, I would be visiting my brother, in whose memory I dedicated my fourth book, Itching Ears Hear and Wandering Eyes See, were it not for his sudden death on August 9, 2023.

Colin sorely regretted his sins regarding the failure of his marriage that occurred years before his death. He felt privileged that despite his medical challenges he married someone that was indeed the love of his life. Despite our failures though, God is surely with those who call out to Him in need. God was with Colin and there for him when he needed him most.

During the years that he was single, most needy, and dependent upon his family to love and help him, he grew closer to God and to other people as he learned how to trust those who had proven themselves trustworthy. God worked on Colin in those years through the people in his life.

Today Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested to investigate the suspicion of his misconduct in public office tied to the late Jeffrey Epstein. It was the ex-Prince’s 66th birthday. Such events remind me to be thankful that I was not born into a life of privilege, status, or wealth.

Those who want to be in heaven with God and know what the Bible says about it know that they will be free of greed, lust, and hatred. Heaven will be sinless with the supreme sovereign God of the universe on His throne. We do not know what we will do but with God we will not be bored.

Marriage resembles Christ’s union with His Bride, the Church, but while Christ lived a sinless life and remains sinless the institutional church struggles with sin and never has been, nor will be, sinless. The Bible compares the marriage of a man and woman to Jesus’s union with the Church, but we must remember that no man or woman is perfect.

I am fortunate to have had an inheritance of loyal men and women who were faithful to their wives and husbands. When these ancestors were also faithful to God they were truly blessed and they blessed me. These diligent Christian family members treated their wives and husbands respectfully and as equals regardless of their strengths and capabilities. Together they led their families by wise and godly living.

The Bible includes encouraging examples of men and women in relationships to teach us what God desires and blesses. Men were not always faithful godly husbands just as women were not always godly examples. But God used them and blessed those faithful to Him. Examples include Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:21-23), Moses and Zipporah (Ex. 2:21-22), David and Abigail (1 Sam. 25:32-35), Esther and King Xerxes (Est. 5), and Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:1-3).

God is faithful in helping men and women to be true to Him and to their spouses. He equips them to discern what is of Him from what is of the world. With God as the family base, the world is a much better place. There is less hate and more godly love, but it will never be heaven until Jesus returns with the new heaven and earth.

Until then we must work to reduce hatred by teaching God’s perfect love through Christ. Heaven’s perfect love can breech worldly hatred, but worldly love will never be perfect.