What do you Think?

"You'll get your reward in heaven."  "Oh, he's gone to a better place." "And I saw all kinds of bright lights, different colors, through a tunnel of sorts; but then, I came back and that's all I remember."  "In my Father's house are many mansions."  Have you noticed that there are all kinds of references to heaven made by churchmen, but none of them ever talk about it very much?  When was the last time you heard a preacher preach a sermon about heaven?   "Oh, dem golden slippers."  "St. Peter at the pearly gates."  "Streets of gold."  "Swing low, sweet chariot!"

While I am no authority, I think most of the world's religions promise a better life after death, provided you try to live a better life before death.  But I don't think I have ever heard the after-life discussed from the pulpit in any serious detail.  I suppose that that's because no one can attest to the details of heaven.  That doesn't mean, however, that most of us have not wondered about it. Truly, faith in God and belief in an after-life are comforting when things aren't going very well. It was said that Albert Einstein was certain in his own mind that there is a God.  He, better than most, understood how perfectly the universe and all that comprised it worked together;  he said that there is no way that creation could have occurred by chance and for him, the complexity of all things was proof of a "higher intelligence."   When asked about a life after death, he replied that he didn't believe in that.  "One life is quite enough," he said.

For those of us who do subscribe to Heaven, there are surely a thousand questions.  Where is it?  Is it over-crowded?  Are the streets gold and is the gate made of a pearly substance.  Does God really sit on a marble throne (like Lincoln at the Lincoln monument in Washington, D.C.)?  Does Jesus sit at the right hand of God?  Do you ever run in to them on the street?  What happens when you marry a widow and you and she run in to her first husband?  How the hell's all that going to work?   Do we all stay in the ground until the "last trumpet" or do we make the trip as soon as we die?

I guess it's generally accepted that our bodies will not be making the trip.  Our souls, our spirits are what's thought to be immortal.   If that's true, there will be no more physical pain; nor any hunger, nor any need to eat food as we know it.  If our bodies remain behind, how do you suppose we'll recognize each other?  For that matter, without bodies, will there be any male or female.  One would suppose there'll be no need for children being born to populate the place; and if that's true, what about sex?  Will there be any?  Almost sounds like some of my favorite things are going to be left to poor miserable humans on earth.  Any dogs? Cats? Horses?  

A lot of this has been tongue-in-cheek.  A guy named Mitch Albom wrote a book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  It doesn't take very long to read.  The story is about an ordinary man who begins life with the same dreams we all have.  The world will be his oyster.  As time goes by, he meets the love of his life, and soon is blest with a child.  These things mean he has to "bring home the bacon" and so he gets a hum-drum job, the best he can find, at an amusement park.  Life marches on and he feels that he is a failure because he cannot earn enough money to give his wife and child the life he thinks they deserve.  Lots of days, he feels his work is not nearly so personally rewarding as the work others do.  There are many things he doesn't understand about life, causing him to be dissatisfied with things as they are.  He meets his demise in old age when one of the park rides malfunctions and he tries to rescue a little girl from certain death.

Almost all of our trouble comes from lack of understanding.  We don't understand other people, we don't understand disease, we don't understand other nations and religions.  Life is full of misunderstandings which lead to hard feelings, disagreements, strife, violence and war.   We suffer from horrible diseases because we don't know what causes them. 

Whatever and wherever heaven is, it may be nothing more than a universe of perfect understanding.  It may be a question of having our eyes and minds opened, so that whites no longer misunderstand blacks.  Men, women.   Protestants, Catholics, and vice-versa.  Jews, Muslims.  Americans, Russians and Chinese.   Greeks, Turks.  Cancer, researchers.  And on and on.   And if you think about it, if we all understood all things perfectly,  it might be heaven on earth, even if it does keep raining.