I have been dwelling on heaven in my study again. Its quite interesting that in Revelation John’s vision of Heaven is a ‘new Jerusalem’. Not any old city then, but his home city.
I started to wonder if, through the centuries, that ‘Jerusalem’ in this context has been romanticised. Has New Jerusalem has been poeticised (is that a word)to become something that it is not?
I have started to wonder whether Paul was seeing this more has a re-creation of his home town rather than some special city. If that is the case, does it mean that my heaven will be a new Gillingham? There is quite a natural force to that statement .. Heaven the new Gillingham, a new London, a new Birmingham … and so on.
The picture of Heaven as my home, but re-created so that it is perfect, is quite an excellent thought. Could heaven really be the place we have chosen to spend our lives, the place we most feel at home and happiest, in a new and perfect form? I don’t know, but it has got me thinking.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 
I think there is something in the idea of Jerusalem being a home city, but Jerusalem was also special. In the OT even though the land is described as being conquered quite early on it is not until David arrives that Jerusalem finally falls, so I am sure that there was a real sense of safety and security associated with Jersualem.I am sure that there were also connections with Jerusalem being the place where the Temple, and therefore God (in some way), resided.If this is the case and Jersualem was a place of safety, national identity and spiritual aspiration then surely we should be thinking along the lines of “the new Lakeside”.Howardwww.gatheringgrace.blogs.com/thegathering
Oh please … the new lakeside is so, well, last century.It would now have to be the new Bluewater!Rob