Our Eternal Victory: What Will Eternity Be Like?

By Matt Redmond

Heaven will be a place where we will all be changed and all things will be made new.

A couple of days before my Dad went on ahead of us into glory, we had a long conversation. Just the two of us in his hospital room.

Back in 2001, he had his first heart attack. And first surgery. And during the surgery, he had his first stroke. That was the first time I sat and talked with him while he lay in a hospital bed. Over the next twelve years, he would have more heart attacks and more strokes. Our once athletic Dad—a minister of the gospel who was a genius on the tennis court and could throw a curve in slow pitch softball (I swear it would curve like Koufax)—seemed to wither away before us.

Now, after so many hospital visits, there we were again. He knew this would be his last hospital bed. We all knew it. He was dying. He was virtually blind. He could barely walk. And his memory was terrible.

He looked over at me and said, “I’m ready to go.”

He went on to tell me he was tired, and he knew where he was going and Who he was going to. I thanked him for being a great Dad and a good friend. And then we sat there in that heavy moment and he asked me how my fantasy baseball team was doing.

“What?”

“How is your fantasy baseball team doing?”

“Ummmm, Dad, I’ve kinda not been paying attention since you’ve been in here.”

And then he asked, “Do you think there is baseball in heaven?”

I told him I was sure the most perfect game would be in the most perfect place. And then I told him the green and the brown would be so beautiful it would make us weep. He would have the vision to see it, too, because Paul says we would all be changed. And he would be able to play like he did as a kid, without ever getting tired. It would always be that perfect June dusk with just a little bit of warmth in the air. And there would be no injuries and only the joy of the game when the bat hits the ball and ball hits the glove.

He stared at the ceiling and we both were teary-eyed by the time I was done. “I think you’re right. I’m ready to go.”

What will heaven be like?

Paul tells us in his first letter to the church at Corinth, “We shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51). He actually says it twice. Changed for the better, we will put on “the imperishable” (1 Cor 15:54). No more hospital beds. No more funerals. Think of it: no more death. Death will be defeated. And I would assume no injuries on the ball field.

And Jesus tells us in the book of Revelation, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5). What has been wearing away because of death and sin will shine like it was supposed to. All that was broken will be made new.

All. All will be made new. Just off the line. The rust erased. The missing pieces replaced.

I’m ready to go, too.

Written By Matt Redmond