Grief and loss ripple through every corner of life. One surprising after-effect of Dan’s death was an intense longing for heaven in grief. My beloved was there and I dearly wanted to be where he was.

At first, I qualified this new longing for heaven by telling others I harbored it “in a healthy way.” I was now a solo mom of seven children walking their own grief and, painful as it was to get out of bed each morning and meet the day, I was absolutely committed to showing up and parenting as well as I could.

But I now see there was no need to qualify it. A longing for heaven is not only natural in grief but fitting for Christians. Paul echoes this in 2 Corinthians 5 writing, “Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling…as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:2, 6, NIV)

Sorrow and suffering bring an increased affection for heaven. I’ve seen that in seven meaningful ways.

1. Heaven seems closer.

It’s not that I never thought about heaven before Dan’s death. But heaven had always seemed far off in time and space. It was a someday thing, very distant from our busy days filled to the brim with life. And then, after one excruciating Friday morning, it wasn’t. Heaven no longer feels distant or far away.

Worship becomes the thin place where heaven is especially close. When I’m with my children in church lifting praise to God in God’s powerful presence, it is a short step to see Dan just the other side of the veil, face to face with Father and Son, praising alongside an angelic host in unrestricted glory and adoration.

2. We long to be present with God

God has put eternity in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) God designed us to be with him, living in the perfection and glory of his presence. Sin separated us from God and while Jesus’s death on the cross restores a right relationship to all who believe, we can only see and know God partially this side of heaven.

So many of our questions about heaven are about streets of gold and the style of our mansions. We want to know what we’ll do with all of our time and whether our beloved animals will be with us. Heaven will be glorious not because of pearl gates and gold streets but because God is there. We will finally It begs the question—do I long for God’s presence now?

But in heaven we will see God face to face and know him as we are fully known.

3. We realize this world is not our home.

They say home is where the heart is and our hearts are at home with God. When someone we love goes to heaven, we have one less tie to this world and one more to eternity. The things of this world where we’ve invested so much time and energy, grow strangely dim.

We realize how short life is. Whether we live to 8 or 18 or 80 years old, this life is a flash. Scripture says our lives are like a mist that appears for a bit and then vanishes, and that our days are like the grass and flowers of the field that flourish and are then gone with the wind. (James 4:14; Psalm 103:15-16)

C.S. Lewis said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

4. We long for no more sorrow.

God tells us He “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” And while much of that healing will come this side of heaven, we won’t find full healing until heaven. I don’t think I knew that before loss.

In heaven, God will wipe away every tear where “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4, ESV) Heaven will free us from every ache, grievance, and worry this world dishes up.

5. We long to be reunited with beloved ones.

Listen, we will run to Jesus and the Father first to worship, but I hope just near them I’ll see Dan with his signature smile. Maybe you’ll see your mom or dad you’ve missed for years, a baby you never got to meet, or a child you’ve longed to hold again. We’ll be together again for eternity.

The anticipation of reunification is one reason we can grieve with HOPE. In First Thessalonians 4:13-14, Paul writes, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” Death for believers never ends the relationship. It’s only a temporary separation until we go to heaven or Christ returns.

6. We no longer fear death.

Dan’s death brought the sting of death as I grieved but it stripped away the fear of death. The moments of birth and death are holy, one ushering in new life and the other transitioning life. I was with Dan in those last moments. And though they came suddenly and without any warning, I knew I was witnessing a holy relocation. His death wasn’t a brutal dead-end but a beautiful beginning of eternity with his heavenly Father.

I no longer fear death. I want to live life as fully as possible and I pray God keeps me here for a good while to keep sowing into my children and grandchildren. But I fully trust God has recorded every one of my days in his book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:16)

7. We long for the glory that’s coming

In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NIV), Paul encourages believers, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

This eternal perspective helps Christians endure not just loss and grief but all suffering, knowing our suffering is temporary and even light compared to the everlasting glory that awaits us in eternity. We want to be heavenly-minded while intentionally walking out each day God gives us here.

Randy Alcorn, writing in his seminal book Heaven, says this about our longing for heaven:

“Nothing is more often misdiagnosed than our homesickness for Heaven. We think that what we want is sex, drugs, alcohol, a new job, a raise, a doctorate, a spouse, a large-screen television, a new car, a cabin in the woods, a condo in Hawaii. What we really want is the person we were made for, Jesus, and the place we were made for, Heaven. Nothing less can satisfy us.”

Will you be in heaven? Heaven is for those who come by way of the cross—through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. If you want to know more about an abundant relationship with God here and the security of heaven with him for eternity, read here about who Jesus is.

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