How we are defining “Heaven” here is going to make a world of difference.
Are we talking about the intermediate state or the ultimate state?
That is: Are we talking about our being present with the Lord “apart from the body”, the state between bodily death and bodily resurrection? Or are we talking about when, after the Lord returns and the dead are raised and God renews the whole of creation and we are experiencing the full glory of the future life in the Age to Come?
In some ways, in either way, a big part of how we are going to answer is “it’s impossible to say” and “we can’t know”. Since we are talking about realities far beyond us in our present as we “see through a glass dimly”.
Since you mention heaven in the same breath as “endless white light” and “clouds” I suppose we can restrict the conversation the intermediate state, rather than the ultimate state. Since that seems to be the focus.
Most of my thoughts about “Heaven” in the sense of the intermediate state are, perhaps quite expectedly, influenced by a long history of Christian art, music, and while I might fight against it it’s impossible to ignore how modern popular depictions of “Heaven” look. And we should, I think, strive against what I would call “Tom & Jerry” views of Heaven (think of old cartoons where a character goes to heaven, sometimes they walk up golden stairs or–for comedic reasons–a golden escalator; there’s puffy white clouds, the souls of people are floating around with small angel wings and wearing robes, strumming harps).
So my imagination has been saturated by artistic impressions, both serious and non-serious. That’s just an unavoidable fact due to the time and place I have grown up and been raised. Some of that artistic imagery can be helpful, depending on whether or not the point is to direct our attention to stronger theological truths beyond the mere imagery itself.
So my imagination definitely conjures up images based on the artistic impressions I’ve grown up seeing. But I don’t think that is what heaven will be like, or what it actually “looks” like.
If you asked me what I think heaven actually looks like I don’t think that is an answerable question. Not only because it’s something fundamentally beyond my ability to fathom; but in a way it’s almost an inherent contradiction when we think about it literally. Can something look like anything if we’re not talking about the physical properties of the material universe? Of photons reflecting off the surface of physical matter into photo-receptive bodily organs (eyes) which sends an electrical signal to my brain, which then interprets that as sight. I’m not saying we won’t “see” anything, perhaps we will–though we can’t call it seeing the way we understand seeing; perhaps a better way of saying it is perceiving/experiencing. But since we are talking about the intermediate state “apart from the body and present with the Lord” that experience will, again, be so fundamentally other than what we know right now. I have no idea how to perceive anything apart from the sensory input I get from my body–when it comes to sights, smells, touch, taste, sounds, etc. That’s the way God designed the body to work, it’s the only thing my brain has to work with.
It’s like asking someone to imagine a color they’ve never seen. Ask someone who has been blind from birth what “green” looks like, or someone who has been deaf from birth what the sound of a songbird is like. It’s simply not possible.
So when you ask me what it will be like to be in the presence of the Lord apart from the body, I can only say it is too much for me.
If I am asked what I imagine what life in the Age to Come will be like, I suspect in some ways there will be the very familiar. Since these old bones will be restored and made new, then I’ll have ears, eyes, etc. Since God is making new all of creation, I’ll see trees and animals, I’ll hear the sound of birds and the rustling of grass in the wind. But at the same time it will be brand new. What will it mean to see the glorified blue sky of the earth’s atmosphere with glorified resurrected eyes? I have no idea. So while here I believe we can speak of there being the familiar, and yet it will be entirely brand new and on as scale of beauty beyond anything we can even begin to imagine.
“But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I will see Him for myself, my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!” - Job 19:25-27