In 2018, Matthew McCullough came out with his terrific book, Remember Death:  The Surprising Path to Living Hope.  Biblical faith neither avoids death nor simply accepts it, but lives with an awareness that it is coming yet is not the end.  McCullough offers some great illustrations, like saying modern medicine is like a comb-over—one can only evade the truth for so long (p. 40). 

Matthew McCullough has now written another excellent book, Remember Heaven:  Meditations on the World to Come for Life in the Meantime.  He picks up on the themes from his first book but takes us deeper into those honest and hopeful places.  He helps believers compare the allure of this world with the stunning promises of heaven “until the scale tips toward the latter” (p. 9). 

McCullough repeatedly highlights the major attraction of heaven:  “Ultimately, what should drive us to set our minds on heaven is the simple fact that Christ is there and that life apart from him is not enough for us” (pp. 14-15).  Heaven may offer many other joys, but the chief delight is to be in the presence of Jesus!

Remember Heaven addresses the sad idea that heaven would get boring:  “How beautiful must something be if staring and praising is all you want to do?   What if you imagine those angels not as horribly bored but inexpressibly, undistractably happy?” (p. 60).   We may not know exactly what seeing God will be like, but “it is safe to say that we will be completely absorbed by a beauty of which all other beauty anywhere else on earth is just the faintest shadow… When we see God, we will necessarily, inevitably, joyfully, and rightly love what is most lovely” (p. 61). 

In the meantime, we voyage on in this world—not as if boarding a cruise ship (focusing on all the amenities that suit us today) but doing our part rowing with a crew team (where what matters are our responsibilities, not our comforts) (pp. 136-37).  Such an eternal perspective helps guard us against worldliness today.