Our view of time, like that of space, depends on our vantage point. Even granting that some believe we can escape the wheel of rebirth and attain the ultimate goal of nirvana, we are still left with eternity. It's instructive to compare death with sleep. We go to sleep at night and enter a different state of consciousness, but we awake in the morning as a continuation of the same consciousness as that of the previous day. In much the same way, reincarnation is the continuation of consciousness after death.
Reincarnation is similar to the concept of a resurrected body.
It seems logical that the place where our human consciousness reimbodies itself is this earth, the natural home to which it is attracted. That is why those who have sought to describe heaven have never been able at the best to describe anything but a glorified earth. The after-death state is analogous to heaven, understood to be a state of consciousness, not a locality. Each immortal spirit periodically needs to express itself in a new body. We have another chance to meet past faults and triumphs, for all levels of our being to continue their development.