One of my favorite places to be is the ocean.  I love the roar of the waves and the feel of the sand.  I love catching waves with a boogie board or just bodysurfing.  Being in the ocean is my “happy place.”  But will it be that for me in heaven?  Will it be like that, only better, or will it be something completely different?

The Bible doesn’t provide us with a lot of specifics about what the afterlife will be like, but the Apostle John’s vision in Revelation 21:1 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”  Once upon a time, that last phrase – “the sea was no more” – bothered me a little bit.  How could one of my favorite things on earth not exist in heaven?

Two thoughts have gotten me over that, and I’m no longer bothered by it.

First, that “the sea was no more” may not be literal.  What does that mean?  While the sea was part of God’s original creation and declared “very good”, later it is described as a source of chaos and evil, where Leviathan lives and the serpent emerges.  In ancient times, the sea was seen as chaotic and dangerous.  It was something to be feared and avoided.  In Canaan and other ancient societies, many believed there were gods over the sea and when the sea became stormy and unruly, it meant those gods needed to be appeased.  Therefore, when we see Moses parting the sea, or see Jesus calming the sea in a storm, or even walking on the sea, we are seeing God’s power over not only the chaos and disorder of the literal and the figurative sea, but also His power over the supposed Canaanite gods.  In that pantheon, Baal was the storm god and Asherah, the goddess of the sea, was his consort.  So, if “the sea was no more” is meant figuratively, John’s vision tells us that in heaven the sea will no longer be a fearful and dangerous symbol of chaos and death.  Whatever ‘gods’ we imagine rule the sea will be conquered.  The chaos that the sea symbolizes will not exist at all: the entire world will be ordered according to God’s perfect will and mankind’s work to make the whole earth like Eden.  “The sea was no more” is a good thing.

The second thought is that if God says a perfect world has no literal sea, I need to trust Him.  I don’t get to choose what’s in heaven and what isn’t, but God does and is infinitely more qualified to make that decision!  While the images of heaven we get in the Bible are obscure and difficult to understand, they do make it clear that heaven will be more amazing and glorious than anything we could imagine, or that we could achieve ourselves.  “The sea was no more” is a good thing again.

So, whatever your favorite things are here on earth, God has something much better in mind.  It will be the “very good” world He intended from the beginning, no matter what our expectations of it are or what we’d wish it to be.  It will the perfect “happy place” for all of God’s people.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”