On April 12, 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man thrust into outer space. On returning, he said, “I didn’t see God out there”. The Soviet propaganda machine made much of this. But Gagarin was an Orthodox Christian, and he spoke truly. He didn’t see God out there, and he wouldn’t see God out there—because, as Christ says, “The Kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’  for indeed, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you!” (Luke 17: 20-21). 

No one finds God “out there” because Heaven, the Kingdom of God—or, as Christ puts it elsewhere, His Father’s House—is within you!  This means that Heaven is personal, and every blessed one of us will experience Heaven a little differently.

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Christ employs many metaphors to convey what Heaven is. It is His Father’s House of many mansions (John 14:2); it is a pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45); it is a great banquet (Luke 14:16-21); it is leaven added to dough, making it rise (Matthew 13:33); and it is a grain of mustard seed that becomes a great tree (Mark 4:30-32). I think Christ is saying that Heaven is many things to many people, that it is to be experienced, and that it comes only to those who have the courage and the determination to realize it—to work with God to make it real.

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Heaven is not a dormitory or a barracks. It’s not a collective. Hell is a collective, but Heaven is not. Heaven is “a place of light, a place of repose, a place of refreshment, where there is no pain, sorrow, and suffering”. Heaven is beautiful beyond our wildest imagination, many-colored, reflecting light like a prism—and it is custom-made by God, with loving regard to our personal differences. And to get there, we must seek it with all our strength. We must love God and turn our gaze inward, not look to the stars; and we must not look to others to do the looking for us, although we each have our own spiritual guide as well as Scripture and the saints to guide and inspire us. For we are travelers, explorers, seekers, and this world is not our home. We are sojourners here, for the time being “moving about in worlds not realized”, as the poet says.

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And so we keep seeking, and we are restless until we find. This is what it means to be human, made in the image of God.

Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee (St. Augustine).

Fr. Paul Martin
Annunciation & St. Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Church
New Buffalo, MI