Heaven

Someone asked me lately what I thought about life after death.  Well, I believe we do live on as individuals after we die.  That's my faith.
When we are talking about something like heaven, we are dealing with a reality that is beyond our complete comprehension.  We don't have words or concepts that adequately capture the reality, so I have to find metaphors or analogies that will help me get some way of thinking about heaven.
I don't find thinking of heaven as being "up" a very helpful metaphor, any more than thinking of God as an old man with a beard.
I find it helpful to think about heaven as another dimension that is intermingled with the dimension in which I live.  Though it is right here, I can't usually experience this other dimension with my senses.  This heavenly dimension is completely Divine, filled entirely with God.  Since God is Love, this other dimension is all Love who is personal, who knows and loves. 
My fondness for fantasy and science fiction make this metaphor of another dimension very meaningful for me.
I think of the Risen Jesus as crossing over body and soul into this heavenly dimension.  I think of him as there and here, a sort of portal between dimensions.  Jesus lives in me at the same time as he lives in heaven.  In contemplation I believe that I enter into this other dimension.  When I die Jesus moves me completely into this heavenly dimension.  Life is changed, not ended.
Those who have already died are living a full life in this heavenly dimension, knowing and loving God and one another, able to know and care about what I do here.  I believe that I can talk with them and ask them to pray for me and for others whom I love.  This dimensional thinking is a metaphor that enables me to feel close to the dead and totally immersed in God.
(This was the morning sky the day after Thanksgiving.)