Peopling Heaven  

Until recently, when my father died, I hadn't given much thought to heaven. As a child I'm sure I imagined it as being "up there" somewhere, far enough away that we couldn't see it -- even from an airplane -- and that when we died, we would somehow sail there, perhaps on wings that unfolded, like a butterfly's, when we broke free from the chrysalis of the body.

This beautiful image doesn't survive into adulthood, when heaven is vaguely thought of, if at all, as a place where the dead wait for us, the suspended relationship expected to pick up where we left off.

The Scripture most often read at Christian funerals is the one from Revelation 21: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things have passed away." The former things. Meaning -- the present things.

 
 
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