Where exactly is heaven? Is it up in the clouds? In outer space? On another planet, or in a galaxy far away?
Before we can understand where heaven is, we should first know what heaven is. When heaven is mentioned in the Bible, it can either mean any place above the ground or it can mean the realm in which God lives.
Anywhere Above the Ground
Genesis 1:20
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
The birds we often see flying above us are in heaven, so to speak.
The stars, clouds, and planets are also above the ground, and there are many verses in the Bible that talk about those things being in the heavens.
Where God Lives
Matthew 6:9
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
This verse says that our Father, God, is in heaven. Does that mean He’s flying around with the birds that are in heaven? No, of course not.
Here the Bible is talking about a different kind of heaven. This heaven is the realm where God lives—invisible to our eyes, yet very real and near.
Acts 17:27-28
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
The main idea about heaven that we should understand is that it is not a place up in the clouds where we go someday after we die to get wings and play harps if we’re good in this life.
Heaven is a place we can go to now—and every day—in prayer, to be in the presence of our Father, God.
Child of God, husband, father, grandfather, rabblerouser, songwriter, pot stirrer, waiting for the King.