Is Heaven a Real Place? Midnight Reflections from Venice

By Seth Julin

Does Heaven really exist? From the perspective of our daily lives, Heaven can seem more like a mystical concept than a real place. The things said of it seem fantastical, perhaps a bit too detached from the realities of our everyday lives. Does Heaven really exist, and if so, is it anything like the descriptions we've heard all our lives?

How you answer that question depends largely on the credibility you assign to the Bible's testimony, for there is little else upon which to base an understanding of Heaven. I am, therefore, writing to those who view the Bible as authoritative. Those who do not so accept it are certainly welcome to keep reading, but without a scriptural foundation, their understanding of this topic will remain a speculative product of their own imaginations.

The Bible describes heaven as the real dwelling place of God and the eternal home Jesus Christ is preparing for His people. It is portrayed as a place of perfect beauty, righteousness, and peace, where death, sorrow, pain, and sin are no more. There, God's people will live in His presence, worship Him, enjoy fellowship with one another, receive resurrected bodies, and serve Him with joy. Above all, the greatest blessing of heaven is that believers will be with Jesus Christ forever.

Although the Bible has much to say about Heaven, if you go looking, you’re not going to find a single passage that summarizes all there is to know. Therefore, below this article, I’ve bulleted a summary of the descriptions and passages about Heaven.

Perhaps one of the most striking passages about heaven is the fourteenth chapter of John, in which Jesus tells his disciples that He is going to prepare a place for them. Think about it. He whom Genesis says created the universe in six days has now been around 2,000 years preparing a place for His disciples. I am looking forward to seeing what He’s building!

These promises of Heaven: Are they real? They seem so far away from the toils of day-to-day life.

I have an analogy to share with you. It’s the analogy I most think of when I think of heaven. It’s the story of my first experience with Venice, Italy.

I had heard that Venice is one of the most beautiful cities in the world—unlike anywhere else. Photographs I had seen seemed to confirm it. I had long imagined what it would be like to walk—and float—through the streets of Venice. To see the palaces, the cathedrals, and the squares. To wander the labyrinth of narrow streets between canals, where gondolas glide past medieval architecture.

Marci and I did make it to Italy, and we explored Florence and Pisa, Rome and Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, Messina and Taormina. Italy is so remarkable that every visit leaves a faint sense of regret about the places left unseen. For us, the greatest such disappointment of that trip was that we were unable to visit Venice. Therefore, on a later occasion, when we found ourselves anticipating a few days’ layover in London, I did a quick search on airfare from London to Venice. To our great delight, the airfare for those specific days was amazingly inexpensive!

Our plane from England was set to arrive at about 22:30, and by the time we got through Italian customs, it was about 23:15. To get from the airport to our hotel in central Venice (Dorsoduro neighborhood) was going to be a boat ride of just over an hour, for Venice sits on a group of islands out in a bay. The airport is on the mainland. The boat we were to ride was to stop at several of those islands before it arrived at the one where our hotel was.

During my life, I have had the opportunity to see quite a few cities across water from boats, and it has generally been a spectacular experience. I was, therefore, very much looking forward to the nighttime boat ride into the islands of Venice.

So, do you want to see what Venice looks like from a boat on the water at night? Here you go. 

Venice has no beautifully lit modern steel and glass skyscrapers. It is full of ancient masonry buildings, many of which are mostly empty at night. Except for an occasional lit window and a few streetlights to make sure people don’t fall in canals, Venice is amazingly dark.

Furthermore, the boat we were riding in was glass-enclosed, and the interior lights were on, so it was very difficult to tell the lights of Venice from the reflections of the boat’s lit interior. There was no exterior deck that we could go onto. Therefore, we actually docked at two or three places in Venice without Marci and I being able to see enough to tell for sure whether we were in Venice or not. When we eventually got enough visual clues to be certain that the boat was passing through the islands of Venice, they were only fleeting and dim glances of the city that we knew was out there.

Between the loud, vibrating hum of the boat’s engine, the uncomfortable seats, the lack of anything interesting at which to look, and a family of passengers who spoke loudly for the entire trip in a language of which we knew very little, it was one of the most tedious boat trips I’ve ever taken. The taxing nature of that boat trip was exacerbated by concern that we might miss our stop. I knew only the name of the wharf at which we were to exit, and although the names of each stop were written on a sign at each berth, it was very difficult to locate those signs, let alone read them through the reflections on the windows.

Finally, after an hour and fifteen minutes of that tortuous trip, I successfully detected that we had arrived at the pier that was 200 metres from our hotel. We collected our luggage and quickly exited. During those first few moments, fresh from the glare of the brightly lit boat cabin, we were preoccupied with not falling into the bay as we transported our suitcases down the dock. But as we exited the dock, something magical happened: The trip was over!

As the boat throbbed away into the darkened bay, we were left only with the gentle lapping of water against sea walls and the quiet sounds of our own feet on cobblestone streets. Our eyes began to adjust to the moonlit, night streets, canals, and buildings of Venice. There we discovered, not the promise of Venice, but the reality of Venice. Those things we had only heard or only seen photographically were overwhelmed by the real experience of that midnight walk through the empty streets of Venice. There, by light of the moon, we personally experienced the great beauty and charm of Venice, and in those moments, we discovered just how different believing truth and experiencing it can be. We had never really doubted, but wow!

I looked at Marci and, in a quiet, awestruck voice, exclaimed, “We’re in Venice!”

All of these things put me in mind of a Bible verse: 1 Corinthians 13:12, which in the King James reads, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” The New Living Translation says it like this, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

Regarding Heaven, we can read what God has promised us in His Word, and we can believe it. We can look forward to it, and just as I was able to catch clues through a glass darkly from the boat window that the promise of Venice was real, so too, we can sometimes catch glimpses of Heaven’s reality. Who among us has not encountered a song or soliloquy that lifts our mind's eye to the great realities awaiting those who love God? But oh, to actually experience it! “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV)

Abraham “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:10 KJV), a city with real foundations! If you have placed your faith in Christ’s atonement, the time is coming when you will experience these things, not simply as bits and pieces of Scriptural evidence or insights from those moments of spiritual joy. The time will come when you will actually stand on the streets of heaven itself. It will really happen, and when it does, you will personally encounter not only the beauty and majesty of all that has been promised in that great city itself. You will encounter the very real person of Jesus Christ with very real scars on His hands and feet, physical evidence that your sins really were paid for and you are a legitimate citizen of that most beautiful city whose builder and maker is God. Job said, “And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:26-27 NIV)

1 Thessalonians says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (NIV)

I hope you are, indeed, encouraged.

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The Bible's Description of Heaven

• Heaven is the dwelling place of God.

  • God is uniquely present there in His glory and majesty.

  • Psalm 11:4, Isaiah 66:1, Matthew 6:9

• Heaven is a real place prepared for God's people.

  • Jesus spoke of it as a place He is preparing for believers.

  • John 14:1-3, Hebrews 11:16

• Heaven is described as a city.

  • Abraham looked forward to a heavenly city built by God.

  • Hebrews 11:10, Hebrews 12:22, Revelation 21:2

• Heaven is a place of beauty and splendor beyond human comparison.

  • The New Jerusalem is described with precious stones, gates of pearl, and streets of gold.

  • Revelation 21:10-21

• Heaven is illuminated by God's glory.

  • There is no need for the sun or moon because God Himself provides its light.

  • Revelation 21:23, Revelation 22:5

• Heaven is free from death, sorrow, pain, and suffering.

  • The former things have passed away.

  • Revelation 21:4

• Heaven is a place of perfect righteousness.

  • Nothing sinful or impure enters God's eternal kingdom.

  • Revelation 21:27, 2 Peter 3:13

• Heaven is a place of worship.

  • Angels and redeemed people continually praise God and the Lamb.

  • Isaiah 6:1-3, Revelation 4:8-11, Revelation 5:11-14

• Heaven is populated by angels and redeemed believers.

  • Believers join a vast assembly of God's people and heavenly beings.

  • Hebrews 12:22-24, Revelation 7:9-17

• Heaven is a place of rest and reward.

  • The faithful enter into God's rest and receive eternal rewards.

  • Matthew 25:21, Hebrews 4:9-11, Revelation 14:13

• Heaven involves personal fellowship with God.

  • God's people will dwell with Him and see Him face to face.

  • Revelation 21:3, Revelation 22:3-4, 1 Corinthians 13:12

• Heaven includes reunion with believers who have died in Christ.

  • Christians are promised eternal fellowship with one another and with the Lord.

  • 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

• Heaven is associated with resurrected, glorified bodies.

  • Eternal life is not merely spiritual; believers will be physically resurrected.

  • 1 Corinthians 15:42-54, Philippians 3:20-21

• Heaven includes meaningful service to God.

  • God's servants will serve Him in His kingdom.

  • Revelation 22:3

• The greatest joy of heaven is the presence of Jesus Christ.

  • Believers will be with Christ forever and will see Him as He is.

  • John 17:24, Philippians 1:23, 1 John 3:2, 1 Thessalonians 4:17