Discoing with God

Michelle's death was very hard on four year old Alex. Actually it was hard on everyone who knew her. Only twenty-seven years old, Michelle died from a slow moving but fatal disease. She had been Alex's piano teacher and he considered her his "best friend." It was tough for him to grasp what had happened. At one point his six-year-old sister, Julia, was trying to console him, saying, "You don't have to be sad, Alex, Michelle is in heaven discoing with God."

I have talked with many people over the years about heaven, some of which were skeptical about the whole thing, saying, "What are we going to do there? Who wants to play harps all the time and float around on clouds?" I have heard the same kind of thing about the picturesque language of the book of Revelation where it talks about streets of gold. "What's so good about streets of gold, give me a golf course!"

What is heaven going to look like, and what will we be doing there for eternity? I think these are natural questions for us even though they cannot be answered right now. If I had any say, I would like heaven to be like the northern beaches of Kauai in the Hawaiian Island chain. That I could take for a very long time, yet even some who live in that tropical utopia today complain of "island fever." They would like to take a vacation for a while and go to a big city. Kauai is too cramped for them. Ah, apparently paradise is not paradise to those who have to stay there very long.

Do you think we will be bored in heaven (assuming we get there!)? Will we float around on clouds or disco with God? Beats me. Maybe that is unimportant. I think heaven is the fulfillment of love for love-starved people. It is the goal of our common quest for meaning and happiness. It is the ultimate sense of freedom from limitation and pain. I really think our blinders will be removed and we will finally "see" what we have longed to see: goodness and mercy. I sort of think that when we experience heaven in its fullness we will not be concerned with the symbolic language we use now to project what we hope heaven is and is not. A beach, a golf course, a jam session, or whatever you think really good, will become nothing in the face of God, whatever that phrase "face of God" means.

I do think Julia is right. The pain we experience at the death of someone really important to us can be soothed somewhat by the realization that who we are at our deepest level will find its ultimate fulfillment and life in the goal God has set for us: Himself. So dream on, and think of climbing that mountain, surfing that wave, enjoying that sunset, loving that person, discoing with God, or dropping in that chip for an eagle. It will happen in one way or another and it will be better than we think ... or can think.

Jerry Mercer