“You mean I will see Christine?”

In June of 2013 my father was in the emergency room of a hospital in Colorado and with his oxygen levels dropping rapidly. It was clear he would now need oxygen forced in his lungs to keep him alive. His lungs, damaged by scarlet fever and pneumonia when he was young, had served him well, until they gave out when he was in his 80s.

The attending physician took my sister and me aside and said that this was it. Either he is put on a ventilator for the rest of his life to be kept alive, or he will not last more than an hour or two.

We had this conversation with dad two or three times before and we all agreed (in his own words): “Son, that’s no way to live.”

So, when the doctor asked about final instructions it was easy. Both my sister and I said we would stay with him as he breathed his last. There was no question as to what to do.

I returned to his room and broke the news to dad by saying that this was going to be his “last trip.” You see, our father had been a traveling salesman, so he understood the image immediately. His traveling was over. His first thought about heaven was about seeing his wife who had passed ten years earlier.

“Well, Dad, you will see mom, but you will also see Jesus, and all the saints.”

The hope of heaven, for Dad, and maybe for all of us, was, and should be about relationships. Heaven is described as a city—the heavenly Jerusalem—as a banquet and as a mansion with many rooms. Heaven is not a place of aloneness or loneliness.

As I thought about it further, life itself (this one and the next) is also about relationships. We, like the Trinity, are in a relationship of absolute love. Heaven is a World of Love, as Jonathan Edwards beautifully described in one of my favorite sermons! And love only is possible in relationship with others. For love is, at its core, serving others so they (and we) become fully what God intends us to be, for now and eternity.

“So, I will get to see Christine?” Yes, we’ll see all those who we have known who are “in Christ” and also those we have not known but who are likewise in Christ. The very best and most pure relationships of service and love we have known here on earth will be known more perfectly in heaven.

More than that, we will learn to love people we have never met from all corners of the world and from all periods of time, in a more intimate and profound way than ever imagined. We will share about martyrdoms and sufferings, but all such sharing will be joy-filled, with no tears, but only consolation and redemption before us! The light and joy of Jesus’ presence will pervade all.

We’ll enjoy a myriad of relationships without doubts, mistrust, or suspicion. We’ll experience pure and holy relationships of love, lifting up one another with each glance, with each word, and with each chord of praise . . . for we will be singing with sublime harmony and beauty in heaven also.

Heaven opened for us through the pained gasp of a whisper: “It is finished.”

This Eastertide I have chosen to reflect on heaven and heavenly relationships. For what is absolute, and eternal, is what gives meaning and purpose each and every day.

Then I looked and there before me was a great multitude that could not be counted, people from every tongue and tribe and people and nation, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and had palm branches in their hands, and they shouted out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb.” And all the angels stood around the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God . . . (Revelation 7:9–11)

Dr. Scott W. Sunquist, president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, is author of the “Attentiveness” blog. He welcomes comments, responses, and good ideas.