‘My problem with the idea of heaven as a gated community, where only some people will be allowed to enter, is memory. Even if I got to be one of the chosen few, I would not enjoy being in heaven because I would remember all of the good people I knew who didn't make it. I would miss them. I would worry about them. I would want to help them. So the private heaven idea just doesn't work for me. I know, admire and respect too many people from too many different walks of life to let that life end in anything but love and community.” Steven Charleston, Facebook Page
Bishop Charleston is telling us in no uncertain terms that heaven is not a gated community where only those with the right code can get in. We all have our own image of heaven. We long for it to be a place where we see those we have loved who have died. We long to find a place of peace and love. When we have connected to a God of our understanding, we experience love in a new way that also brings us to see ourselves and our neighbors in a new light of love. Something tells us instinctively that this love never dies. Perhaps the only thing we carry with us into life after death is love. Perhaps what we most leave on this earth is love. I have been taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is not only after we die, but it is right here in the present as well. Our choice is to be aware of it.
If heaven in life after death is not gated, perhaps that tells us something about the heaven we may know on this earth. It as well is not gated. It is learning to love all we come in contact with every day. As we do this and look for the Christ, the holiness in each other, our concept of who we will relate to in life beyond death also enlarges.
Our city mourns today one of our African American policemen, Marc Collins, who died much too young from cancer. I am reading all the tributes to him. I have known him for almost 30 years. I only saw love as I remember him as a friend, a neighborhood officer, a member of a SWAT team, a Navy Seal. I am overcome with love remembering him. He left so much love on this earth and I know he takes it with him as well. Marc is one more person teaching us that heaven is a place of love and is not gated on this earth or in the life to come.
Joanna. Joannaseibert.com
Book Signing Wordsworth Books
Saturday, November 2, 2019 1 to 3 pm
Just in time for the holidays
A Spiritual Rx for Advent Christmas, and Epiphany
The Sequel to A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Both are $18. Money from sale of the books goes to Camp Mitchel Camp and Conference Center in Arkansas or Hurricane Relief in
The Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast