I wish heaven was next door so I could go and visit anytime. I would go there right now to hang out with Lenya and my mom. Of course, it would be difficult to come back.
I don't always know what to make of the stories from those who claim to have taken visits to heaven for 26 minutes or whatever. Some might seem legit, most are designed to sell books.
Here is a mindbender, Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." That narrows it down and freaks me out. I have done a lot of thinking about heaven since my granddaughter Lenya went there, and it remains a great mystery. No wonder, since we are stuck with so much cultural clutter about the place.
Teaching and talking about heaven is one thing, knowing a dear loved one has gone there is quite another.
How can heaven be so close, but so far away? When I was laying in the back of an ambulance in Miami, any breath could have been my last. Of course that is always true, but it took on added reality because my heart was blowing up.
Even then, heaven seemed so abstract, maybe if they had used the siren it would have inspired me to have some visions. But no.
Jesus said a lot of things about heaven, "It is like this... and like that." Nothing quite as precise as I would prefer.
I am not complaining, I am jazzed to have made the team, and when this road trip is over we will see the wisdom of it all.
I just want to know more; If only Paul and John could use Instagram, or the Bible came with pictures, like a slick Nat Geo mag.
Maybe we live in such a low estate, we can only understand heaven in the context of life on earth being short and painful.
So perhaps the Bible makes concessions to our paltry faculties when it defines heaven more by what is not there: No death, crying, pain or sorrow. Yeah, I know the sunsets are gorgeous in Maui and the Grand Canyon is exquisite, but human experience is better illustrated by tears and misery than by first class cabins and cruises.
I am not complaining, I am jazzed to have made the team, and when this road trip is over we will see the wisdom of it all.
I just want to know more; If only Paul and John could use Instagram, or the Bible came with pictures, like a slick Nat Geo mag.
Maybe we live in such a low estate, we can only understand heaven in the context of life on earth being short and painful.
So perhaps the Bible makes concessions to our paltry faculties when it defines heaven more by what is not there: No death, crying, pain or sorrow. Yeah, I know the sunsets are gorgeous in Maui and the Grand Canyon is exquisite, but human experience is better illustrated by tears and misery than by first class cabins and cruises.
This much I know, when I walked away from little Lenya's grave on that frigid Montana day in December, earth never seemed so cold and heaven never seemed so attractive. I wish it were next door, then I could hear her say in that special voice, 'Hi papa!'
Soon and very soon, its all just a heartbeat away.
Lenya Avery :: Celebration of Life from Levi Lusko on Vimeo.
