Usually, the first heaven is considered to be our atmosphere, the second heaven is the sky, stars, and galaxies we can see, and the third Heaven is paradise.

By calling the New Earth Earth, God emphatically tells us it will be earthly, and thus familiar. Otherwise, why call it Earth?

You are correct to observe that often the imagery of being in or outside of a city wall means the difference between being in relationship or not. In the Gospels, study out "cast into outer darkness" and what that means, in regard to the walls and gates of a walled city. And look just how big the walls of this city are! The city is secure from the evil ones.

In verse 9 it says God "exalted and gave" a name. The Greek tense is what is called an aorist, in the indicative mood, "past time, in a point of time". So this verse says God has already given and exalted with the name.

When I read Revelation 21-22, I am reading the "rest of the story." The beginning of the story is found in Genesis chpts. 1-3. Finally, all the wrongs in the first garden are being made right in the final garden.

Randy Alcorn answers the question "What Will We Experience in the New Heavens and the New Earth?" Filmed at Corban University.

In this 6-minute video, I share about Matthew 1:23, which tells us about Christmas. It says, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means “God with us”.

I shared briefly on Facebook what happened a couple of days ago, but wanted to blog about it now and add quite a few other thoughts and links.    

I think we will celebrate the birth of Christ in Heaven for all eternity. How could we not celebrate His incarnation? Certainly we will celebrate—though celebrate doesn't seem quite the right word—the triumph of the resurrection of Christ.