Thursday, October 8, 2009
A Thought About Heaven
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Just imagine the whole "heaven scene" for a minute. You know, we are all standing around "the throne," praising or whatever, and God starts to go through this program he has been planning since the dawn of time. He begins to call out names of martyrs and saints and "really good" Christians - one at a time, recognizing their faith and the actions they did and how amazing it was that they willingly gave up their life for God. And as he calls the names, one by one, the saints come up to the throne and get a crown - or a high five or something.
Now I don't really think this scene will literally take place. But for some reason I imagined this the other day. And then I thought to myself, "As I watched other people's names being called in order to be rewarded for their faith actions, will I be surprised when God calls my name, or will I be upset that I wasn't called when I thought I should be?"
Just a thought.
Just imagine the whole "heaven scene" for a minute. You know, we are all standing around "the throne," praising or whatever, and God starts to go through this program he has been planning since the dawn of time. He begins to call out names of martyrs and saints and "really good" Christians - one at a time, recognizing their faith and the actions they did and how amazing it was that they willingly gave up their life for God. And as he calls the names, one by one, the saints come up to the throne and get a crown - or a high five or something.
Now I don't really think this scene will literally take place. But for some reason I imagined this the other day. And then I thought to myself, "As I watched other people's names being called in order to be rewarded for their faith actions, will I be surprised when God calls my name, or will I be upset that I wasn't called when I thought I should be?"
Just a thought.
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3 comments:
To me this is a kind of ridiculous questions and bogus scenario.
What you're saying sounds as crazy to me as having an awards ceremony for infants and rewarding the ones who cried the least or something it doesn't make sense you love all the infants completely no matter what just because of who they are.
The way I see it God loves us all so much that our efforts to please Him do make Him happy, but don't set us apart or better to others. Like if an infant smiles at you it makes you happy that it acknowledged you, but doesn't make you love or care for that baby any differently.
So I know you don't think this will actually happen, but I just think I won't be surprised or upset: I will finally be able to see we're all children of God now matter what we've done, will be able to see other people's souls without the layers of stuff that get in the way here and be able to rejoice in our differences and stop comparing myself to others.
I think I hear what you are saying, and I would like to agree with you that we will "finally be able to see we're all children of God now matter what we've done, will be able to see other people's souls without the layers of stuff that get in the way here and be able to rejoice in our differences and stop comparing" - But I also think that some of my humanity will sneak into heaven. Regardless of whether or not something like this admittedly bogus scenario will happen, what I'm wondering about is how I am often confident of my "place" or my "status" in God's kingdom. But the reality is that what I consider important and of value is not what God considers valuable. If I take that truth to heart, then I expect there to be some WTF moments, even in (make believe) heaven.
I think another question might be, who would I be really surprised (even upset?) to see in heaven? While it'd be great if I could honestly say, "I will be happy to see everyone" - I'm not always sure that is the case.
Thanks for your pushback!
sorry - "test blog" is me (Jesse) writing at work
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