I like facts. I like to see things written in black and white. I am a visual person. So when I am asked to imagine heaven I am not sure what heaven looks like. Does it look the same to everyone? Or is heaven more of a feeling? I admit that I don’t know much more than the average Sunday School lesson has taught me about heaven. So I guess that is where hope comes in for me.
I have a very limited knowledge about what the Bible has to say about heaven, so I have been doing a lot of reading. I want to know more. Hello, Reverend Google. Let me type my questions to see if I can find out something more. What does the Bible say heaven looks like? Lots of stuff popped up and one of the things that I read were some quotes from C.S. Lewis on Hoping for Something More. I never feel that reading something inspiring is an accident. I feel that God purposely directs us to it. I found it at http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com. If you have never visited that website, it has a lot of inspirational Bible verses broken down into categories. Here a few of C.S. Lewis’ quotes.
“Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know what they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.”
“At present, we are on the outside…the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the pleasures we see. But all the pages of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get “in”…We will put on glory…that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch.”
“We do not want to merely “see” beauty – though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words-to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” – C.S. Lewis
With my very limited knowledge, what I understood from this quote was imagining heaven and seeing heaven are two different things. As a Christian, up to now, I have been content with the hope and promise of heaven. It never really mattered what it looked like or what was waiting for me. But after reading this quote it reminded me of the difference between looking out a window and seeing a beautiful garden ablaze with flowers, watching birds swoop, watching butterflies flutter, and seeing trees blow with the wind is vastly different from actually being in the garden. When we are actually in the garden we can smell the fragrance of the flowers. We notice the texture of the petals and leaves. We hear the birds singing in the trees calling out to their mate. We feel the breeze that makes the trees sway. We are one with the garden. That must be what heaven is like. We spend our lives wanting more, not really sure what more actually is and we try and try to fill up with things on earth. But we will never be truly satisfied on this earth. Maybe we don’t go to heaven; maybe we are in heaven.
As I sit here on earth missing my son and wishing he were still here, I realize how completely selfish it is that I would deny him the beauty of being in heaven just to have him here in the flesh with me. It is through quiet time with God and opening my heart to the perspective of great thinkers that I slowly each day take a tiny step toward letting go and letting God do the planning.
Peace and Love.
She writes about life, death, grief, and recovery.
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