Imagine this conversation.

You’re on a distant planet, maybe in another galaxy.  And you are talking to a friend about the most wonderful planet either of you has ever imagined.

You: And this Earth, it’s supposed to be beautiful, right?  With glorious landscapes and fresh air and four seasons!  This planet is situated just the exact right distance from the sun to sustain life! And there are oceans and mountains, rivers and seashores, farms and villages and cities!  And I hear you can spend your days fishing or mountain-climbing or flying a kite! Oh, and the food is incredible, every kind imaginable!  Sounds good, doesn’t it? 

Your friend: You know this is preposterous, don’t you?

You:  Of course.  In the entire universe, there’s nothing else like it.  Look around.  Do you see anything like I’ve just described?  Most of the planets are either balls of hot rock or globes of fiery gases.

Who could imagine Earth?

And yet–here we are. Living on it, enjoying it, taking it for granted, as though it’s the most common thing in the universe.

We would tell our alien visitors, “Not only is there an Earth, but it is so perfect, once you get there, you can live in peace and comfort all your days–three score and ten and possibly beyond–without a single thought as to how it’s all happening.  If you like, you can spend your existence studying, say, the life of Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill, even trying to become a leader like them, without giving one thought to the air you breathe, the spinning of the Earth on its axis, the orbit it’s taking around the sun, the condition of the sun, or the journey of the Galaxy throughout the universe.”

And if your visitor says, “That’s preposterous,” you respond: “I know. Isn’t it wonderful?”

The word preposterous comes from “pre” meaning “before” and “posterous” meaning “to come after.”  Something that is “before and after” at the same time might be said to be reversed or backward. Absurd.

If, let us say, someone had come from Earth to tell the extraterrestrial you about life on this planet, would you have believed?  Would that have helped?

Well. We have that, you know.

Listen to this: “Truly I say to you, we speak that which we know.  We bear witness of that which we have seen…. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has been to Heaven other than the One who descended from Heaven. And you’re talking to Him right now.” (My slight paraphrase of John 3:11-13)

This is why I believe in Heaven: It’s so preposterous, so absurd, so other-worldly.

Just like earth.

Theologian Fisher Humphreys says, “One reason I know Heaven is going to be so wonderful is that Earth is so fascinating.”

“Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places.  If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I do that, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)

It is not important that I understand a single thing about how Heaven operates, although I find the subject fascinating.  In truth, I don’t even understand much as to how Earth manages to hang here on nothing and provide everything we need for life without so much as messing up my hair as I sit here at the laptop.

We live by faith.

I board an airliner and fly across the country by faith. I know practically nothing about the operation of that plane, yet I trust others who do.

I buy groceries at the store and eat them by faith.  I have no way of knowing they are not contaminated or that the processes by which they were grown and gathered and prepared are not deadly, but I trust others to do that.

I do not know how the Lord will transfer this earthly existence into His heavenly realm when I breathe my last here in this life.  And yet I trust Him.

“The just shall live by faith,” says Scripture in four places (Habakkuk 2:4 and in the New Testament, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38) and demonstrates it in a hundred places.

You are a person of faith too, you know.  No matter whether you dispute it or not, you are.  You board that same airplane. You take medicines prepared by a pharmacist.  You allow strangers to put you to sleep and do surgery on you.  You drive on the highway.

You are a person of faith.

The only question is: In whom are you placing your faith?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.  That’s the command and the promise of Scripture (Acts 16:31, among other places).

You may need to pray as one fellow in Scripture did:  “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” Do it. He will not refuse such a prayer.