In Heaven, As It Is On Earth?
Several weeks ago, when a 20-year-old local man died by drowning, I looked up the story online and read through the comments on the story. The young man was a rancher/cowboy, and mysteriously died, along with his horse, in a farm pond. He was working with others, and was out of sight a relatively short time, after he had ridden off to pursue a straying calf.
People said kind things about Chance, and I have no reason to believe that he wasn't a fine young man. They noted how much he loved working cattle, and assumed that he must be doing that in heaven.
I gulp when I read or hear this kind of sentiment. I've heard it at funerals for those who never ever made a profession of Christian faith, or a pretense of it. No matter. The assumption is always that the deceased are in heaven, and always that they are engaged with whatever pleasures or competencies occupied their lives while they were on earth.
When I attended the funeral of a builder, the minister assumed that the Lord needed the deceased person's help with some buildings that were to be constructed in heaven. What of those many mansions, and a prepared place for God's people--that Jesus spoke of more than 2,000 years ago? I really have trouble believing that any new arrival in heaven is handed a set of blueprints and ordered to get to work. That's what earth is for--toil and labor in preparation for rest in eternity.
I think what's going on here is that people simply start with an earthly mindset and try to project earthly understandings into a heavenly environment. They also are trying to deal with the finality and harshness of death by imagining the deceased in a nice home somewhere else.
I understand why thoughts of eternal torment are not welcome at such a time or any time.
All of us, of course, are limited in our ability to imagine heaven. When God says that heavenly realities have "never entered into the heart of man" I believe it. That's why I'm sure that easy-to-visualize things like working cattle or building houses isn't going to be in heaven as it is on earth.
We've probably all wished guiltily that heaven could wait for us at least until after we've experienced some long-anticipated pleasurable event, like seeing the tulips bloom, or taking a vacation, or getting married. I think we do that because we can't imagine anything more pleasurable than the thing that seems almost within reach. When I've caught myself thinking these kinds of thoughts, I let myself thoroughly relish the pleasure of the moment, and then try to imagine that pleasurable feeling multiplied and intensified many times in its heavenly manifestation. I try not to demand of God that He give me this particular pleasure in heaven, but to remember that what He will give is something even more pleasurable.
Thinking of heaven is best done with humility and reverence. In my ears, confident assertions about another's eternal destiny--unless the evidence is very clear--or the heavenly pastimes that person enjoys--all of this sounds the wrong note, at a time when it's especially important to be hitting exactly the right tone according to Scripture. Those who survive need truthful words by which to prepare for their own eternal destiny.
People said kind things about Chance, and I have no reason to believe that he wasn't a fine young man. They noted how much he loved working cattle, and assumed that he must be doing that in heaven.
I gulp when I read or hear this kind of sentiment. I've heard it at funerals for those who never ever made a profession of Christian faith, or a pretense of it. No matter. The assumption is always that the deceased are in heaven, and always that they are engaged with whatever pleasures or competencies occupied their lives while they were on earth.
When I attended the funeral of a builder, the minister assumed that the Lord needed the deceased person's help with some buildings that were to be constructed in heaven. What of those many mansions, and a prepared place for God's people--that Jesus spoke of more than 2,000 years ago? I really have trouble believing that any new arrival in heaven is handed a set of blueprints and ordered to get to work. That's what earth is for--toil and labor in preparation for rest in eternity.
I think what's going on here is that people simply start with an earthly mindset and try to project earthly understandings into a heavenly environment. They also are trying to deal with the finality and harshness of death by imagining the deceased in a nice home somewhere else.
I understand why thoughts of eternal torment are not welcome at such a time or any time.
All of us, of course, are limited in our ability to imagine heaven. When God says that heavenly realities have "never entered into the heart of man" I believe it. That's why I'm sure that easy-to-visualize things like working cattle or building houses isn't going to be in heaven as it is on earth.
We've probably all wished guiltily that heaven could wait for us at least until after we've experienced some long-anticipated pleasurable event, like seeing the tulips bloom, or taking a vacation, or getting married. I think we do that because we can't imagine anything more pleasurable than the thing that seems almost within reach. When I've caught myself thinking these kinds of thoughts, I let myself thoroughly relish the pleasure of the moment, and then try to imagine that pleasurable feeling multiplied and intensified many times in its heavenly manifestation. I try not to demand of God that He give me this particular pleasure in heaven, but to remember that what He will give is something even more pleasurable.
Thinking of heaven is best done with humility and reverence. In my ears, confident assertions about another's eternal destiny--unless the evidence is very clear--or the heavenly pastimes that person enjoys--all of this sounds the wrong note, at a time when it's especially important to be hitting exactly the right tone according to Scripture. Those who survive need truthful words by which to prepare for their own eternal destiny.
posted by Mrs. I at
7:15 PM
2 Comments:
I used to picture heaven as an eternal hymn sing and unconsciously rather dreaded being there. I like to sing, but there are many other things I like to do too.
Realizing that we are made in the image of God and also that we are to reign with Him makes me think that there will be many meaningful things we will be involved in there.
I wonder if in heaven your gift of words won't be utilized somehow? But whoever interacts with you in it will be drawn to God in worship through the image of Him in you. No envy, no irritation, no misunderstanding. It's hard to wrap my mind around it....
By
Anonymous, at 5/28/2009
I rather enjoy Lewis's flight of fancy in The Great Divorce: heaven as a continued journey, where even the "staging area" is a place of intensely real, throbbingly vital existence.
By
EldestSon, at 5/29/2009
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