God Created Heaven - Sunday Theology

I finally received the book "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn in the mail last week & eagerly started reading it this weekend. Because I have such excitement & passion about what Heaven is going to be like, I knew that I would savour each word of his book.

I've learned so much already in just the first few chapters and it hasn't even got to the stuff that I look forward to the most, what the New Earth is going to be like where we will be living forever.

But I got to the part where Randy talks about the fact that God created Heaven and chose to dwell there. I read & re-read that part & it just sort of blows me away. Because we are finite & God is INFINITE, I have a hard time wrapping my small mortal brain around the fact that God had to create himself a place to dwell. Let me rephrase that, God does not NEED a place to dwell, because he is everywhere. He does not need a physical place, it is a place he created for both physical & spiritual. A place where we can be with him until he is ready for giving us the New Earth.

Most everyone knows how the Bible starts in Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. What my brain can't grasp is where could have God been in the eternity BEFORE he created the heavens? If my physical mind must think of things in a physical way, I find myself too limited to think of God before there was a heaven in which he dwells.

I quote from Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven" chapter 6 "God created Heaven; therefore, he did not always dwell there. Though God chooses to dwell in Heaven, he does not need a dwelling place. However, as finite humans, we do. It's no problem for the all-powerful God, a spirit, to dwell in a spiritual realm or a physical realm or a realm that includes both."

So, though I understand what this means, its still an overwhelming thought for a mind that is limited to time & space. This is no argument against the creation of heaven. I fully believe it, this is just me trying to fathom a spiritual realm, that existed, well for eternity I guess, before God created a physical realm. I searched for other discussions on this topic on the internet but didn't come up with much. I wonder if we'll understand it from God when we are in Heaven? Will our Heavenly minds be able to grasp the concept of eternity & the existance of our eternal God before He created us and why? I have so many questions but I wonder, will we just automatically know the answers in Heaven or will we have eternity to ask questions & discover the secrets & wonders of God?