A Series of Questions: Is There Going to be Food in Heaven? (Part 1)

Will there be food in heaven?

Short answer: YES

Long answer: I think we can break this down into two parts

 

 1.Why this a great question to chew on

 2.Why I think the answer is YES

 

We'll tackle the first one in this post, then the second in the one following.

 

1. Why this is a GREAT question to chew on

 

So I don't know who submitted any of these questions, so I can't follow up with them and ask specifically why they were wondering about this. But I can say that wondering about heaven is great for someone who follows Christ, since Christ often talked about heaven. Here are a few examples:

 

• "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:20
 
• "I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 8:11
 
• “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." Matthew 18:10

 

If you're following someone, if you're their disciple, then your mind and heart should be on the same things that their mind and heart are. If Jesus talked about heaven, then his disciples shouldn't shy away from thinking or talking about heaven.

 

A warning: with all this said, we should be careful not to take things too far either. Scripture talks about heaven, but by no means does it tell us to go get PhD's in "Heavenomics/ology". See here for reference of when this can go too far.

 

In fact, one of the ways in which we should be growing is replacing our worldly hopes (and the fears that so often go along with them) with the same kind of hope our Master has. I can't tell you how often I catch myself so consumed with thoughts of achieving financial security, or fears of falling behind according to the world's standards. Make no mistake, we are called to live wisely, to care for ourselves and those who are under our care, but the truth is our hopes and fears actually determine the direction of our lives, and you can't move in two directions at once no matter how hard you try.

 

If you are consumed with worldly hopes and fears, then you cannot follow Jesus.

Instead we need to hope in the same things that Jesus hoped in.

 

But what did that hope look like? As I mentioned earlier, Jesus often talked about heaven. But here's one really important thing to note about this: Jesus wasn't talking about heaven in the sense of someone who couldn't wait to get out of earth (which unfortunately many Christians do). For Jesus, the hope of heaven was something different. In the next post we'll look at what Jesus' hope in heaven looked like, and what food might have to do with that :)