heaven

I went to the park today, to run a bit in preparation for Tuesday and our running and swimming triathalon training. (mini triathalon, that is). It's been SUCH a gorgeous day, and it was perfect weather for being outside, so the park was packed. Sometimes that annoys me, but as I ran/walked/sprinted around the track, something hit me.

What if this is what heaven is like?

I honestly don't like to think about heaven much. I mean, it's not that I don't like to think about it, but I have to admit that I'm lightly judgmental towards all the folks that go on and on about streets of gold and what not. And I really don't like singing songs about when we all get there and how great it's going to be and whatnot.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all about going to heaven. I just think, why focus on that now? I mean, maybe, why obsess about it and let it become a bigger focus than the reality of all the people around us who are NOT going to be there, at least not unless we do something?

Ok, sorry, that's a whole other soapbox…

But anyway, I just started thinking as I was running around, what if heaven is more like this, this beautiful and full park, than this big mansion filled, gold coated city? What if the reality is more the people there, the community, the conversations, the fun, the beauty, the worship, the sense of life and life to the full?

Now that's something I could think about more often.

I really can't describe how awesome everything looked in the park today. Clear skies. Cool breeze. A large Muslim family/families. Buddhist monk and a white guy walking the track. People with dogs and puppies and feeding ducks. Kids. Teenagers. Couples. Adults. People reading. People laughing. Kids playing on the playground. People exercising. People sleeping, playing Frisbee golf, setting up tents, listening to music, riding bikes, cooking out, laughing, talking, walking on a tight rope thing.

Everything. Pretty much everything you could imagine. Ok, well, not everything, but so much going on. So many different races and ages, all mixed together, all enjoying themselves and each other and the weather.

So what if heaven is more like a perfect version of that?

Like the end of the last book of CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, where they all end up back in Narnia, but it's not the same. It's new. More real and more Narnia than they could ever have imagined. Perfect. Beautiful, and yet still the same Narnia they knew and loved.

It makes me think of those Claritin commercials where you see everything clearly, you think, and then BAM, they remove this film from the screen and say something about Claritin clear, and everything looks AMAZINLY brighter. You can't even comprehend the way it looked before as being clear.

So what if heaven is more like that?

I love days in the park like today, but they're not perfect. But what if they were? Perfect air, trees, grass, earth, people, smells, tastes, conversations, games, etc.

Totally beyond what I can really imagine, and yet something I think I want. Something beautiful and perfect and alive. Much more alive to me than streets of gold, you know?

I don't know. this is by no means theological or anything like that. I really have no clue, but I think heaven will have more to do with relationships with God and each other than anything about where we are or what it looks like.

Just something to think about…