I think this dull vision of heaven makes us all, even Christians, think that we need to suck all the joy and excitement we can out of this life before we “kick the bucket.” Well, I have a different perspective: I have no plans to kick the bucket. I intend to pass from life into greater life and eventually into eternal joys and pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11) I don’t need a bucket list because my adventure of discovery and joy will not end with the passing of this life- it will only be just beginning.

Bucket lists have become very popular lately, especially with the ability to spread them easily through social media. If you need help building your bucket list, web sites and books and other resources abound to help you shape your own list perfectly. I saw the 2007 movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and enjoyed it. It was a fun buddy movie with a heart.  Nevertheless, I do not have a bucket list and I do not intend to make one.

Why not?

The answer to that question hit me this morning in Sunday School. We’re studyingSetting Our Sights on Heaven by Paul Wolfeand we covered chapter 7, “Clouds and Harps” this morning. In this chapter, Wolfe confronts the boring, stale, flat visions of heaven that populate our imaginations and our pop culture. Usually, they involve sitting on a cloud and strumming a harp with too-small wings.

I think this dull vision of heaven makes us all, even Christians, think that we need to suck all the joy and excitement we can out of this life before we “kick the bucket.” Well, I have a different perspective: I have no plans to kick the bucket. I intend to pass from life into greater life and eventually into eternal joys and pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11) I don’t need a bucket list because my adventure of discovery and joy will not end with the passing of this life- it will only be just beginning.

I do enjoy going to new places and having new experiences. Some of my best memories involve such adventures:

• eating escargot and sipping chardonnay at a sidewalk cafe a few blocks from the Louvre in Paris
• seeing Paris at night from the top of the Eiffel Tower
• visiting Castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria
• standing on Cadillac Mountain and looking down on Bar Harbor, Maine on a beautiful night under a full moon
• riding out to the Statue of Liberty on a beautiful spring day
• standing on the Great Wall of China after climbing over 1,000 steps to reach the wall
• walking through the Forbidden City, the emperor’s palace
• standing high above Quito, Ecuador at the world’s equator and at over 10,000 feet
• collecting shells and catching sand dollars on Sanibel Island, Florida
• enjoying the beauty of fall foliage in the Shenandoah Mountains along Skyline Drive in Virginia

I am not trying to be “super-spiritual” when I say that I have no bucket list and I do not want one. I still have many things I would love to experience:

• the hills and moors of Scotland
• the castles of England and Wales
• London, especially Westminster Abbey
• Rome
• Tuscany
• an Alaskan cruise
• hiking the Appalachian Trail
• backpacking in the Alps
• standing in Calvin’s pulpit in Geneva

Yet, I am realistic. I am 40 years old and I have three young children. I will likely not have the time, money, energy, etc. to accomplish everything I’d like to see and do in this life. I also know myself well enough to know that if I accomplished everything on the above list, I could easily come up with more: Egypt’s pyramids, Jerusalem, a Mediterranean cruise, etc.

So I have a new saying I’ve been telling myself in my mind when I think about these things: “There will be plenty of time for that in eternity.” And I believe that’s more than just escapism, wishful thinking or “pie-in-the-sky by-and-by.” I believe God is the source and provider of every legitimate pleasure, those pleasures we enjoy without regret. I believe all that Satan and this fallen world can do with God’s good gifts of pleasure is to darken, twist and lessen them. I also believe that God wastes nothing.

I do not know exactly what life in the new heavens and new earth will be like, but I believe that the new creation will be better than this current creation, not worse. It will be more, not less.

In Revelation 21:26, God says of the New Jerusalem, “They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” I think that means that all legitimate human achievement and beauty will be brought into the New Jerusalem. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights (James 1:17).” And God does not revoke His good gifts to His children. We will receive even more of His good gifts in eternity, but He will not take away what He has given us here.

So I think it’s true, beautifully and gloriously true: There will be time for that in eternity! We will have plenty of time to explore, to have adventures, to make memories, to build new things, to develop and grow and love and worship and wonder and enjoy!

I don’t need a bucket list and I don’t need to worry about “kicking the bucket,” for my Heavenly Father is better and more generous than I could ever dream and in His presence, where I will live forever, is eternal joy and pleasure forevermore! Put THAT on my list!

Jason A. Van Bemmel is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. This article appeared on his blog Ponderings of a Pilgrim Pastor and is used with permission.