If you were to ask random people on the street to describe Heaven, you’d probably discover that most-everyone can tell you two things about it: The streets are paved with gold, and something about “pearly gates.”

If you want a verse…

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

Revelation 21:21 

Now to be clear, John is not describing Heaven here. He actually did that much earlier in Revelation, when he wrote about the throne of God (Revelation 4). What we have in chapter twenty-one is a picture of the church as it will be in Heaven. We’re seeing a kingdom free from the bruises and beatings that the Devil lays onto it on a daily basis. This is the church after Judgment Day, after the Devil and those who followed him have been expelled to Hell. All that remains is God and His people. He will clean up and beautiful His beaten down church and present her to Himself a glorious kingdom (Ephesians 5:27), like a bride on her wedding day.

To illustrate that, John describes the kingdom of Christ as a gem-stone covered, gold-paved palace of a city, home only to those who loved God and who kept His commandments. In v21 he descriebs the gates of the walls that surround the city and the streets that her citizens tread. And sure enough, John says the streets are gold and the gates are pearly.

Notice that John doesn’t say that each of the twelve gates were covered in pearls. No, he says “every several gate was of one pearl.” In other words each gate was a pearl, or, to put it another way, each gate was made entirely out of pearl; holy cow that’s a big pearl!

And then there are the streets. They are made of gold so radiant and so free of imperfection, they are as clear as transparent glass. That’s the finest gold there ever could be…and it’s pavement! The most precious commodity on planet earth, over which untold wars have been fought, is the asphalt of the Heavenly City! Maybe the Lord was right (He always is) when He told us to lay up our treasures in Heaven and not on earth. Let go of your money here; there’s plenty of riches up there.

It literally lines the streets and covers the doors.