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Dalton
Roberts |
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Norman Fischer says there is joy and freedom in realizing that our world and we are as passing and beautiful as falling snowflakes. This will not sit well with anyone who wants this life to go on forever but there is something in it that pleases me. I am not even sure what it is. Maybe it’s the idea that things are made new eternally. Being the son of a minister, I was made to go to church two or three times a week until I was grown. When I finally freed myself from all the things I disliked about the church I grew up in, it was years before I was able to crank up any interest in going to church. I had to chisel me out a brand new way of looking at God and the spiritual things. I am sure I heard hundreds of sermons on heaven. At the end of each one I would sit there and wonder, “Now, who would want to go to a place like that? Why would anyone want to walk on streets of gold? I’d rather walk down a little path with trees and flowers all around. Wouldn’t everyone get tired of hearing angels sing? What about Hank Williams? And Elvis? And Bessie Smith? Surely they will sing some, too!” Yes, I am like Norman Fischer: I’d rather see things change a lot, like snowflakes falling. I want to see Mama and Daddy and all the people I have loved in this short life but I would also like to see them growing and becoming more beautiful and loving. I would like to think after a hundred years of being around Jesus I would be more kind. I’d like to hear all the great teachers speak every day telling us brand new and beautiful thoughts I have never thought. I’d like to hear Jesus sitting on a hillside teaching like He did when He gave us the Sermon on the Mount. I’d like to hear Buddha explain new ways to meditate and increase our mindfulness. I’d love seminars on songwriting taught by Hoagy Carmichael, Kris Kristofferson, Fannie Crosby, Hank Williams, Albert Brumley, George Gershwin and hundreds more. I’d like to think there would be places where new things like musical instruments would be continually created. I’d love to see artists painting and sculptors sculpting all over the place. I’d love for to be able to hug all my friends and loved ones as well as anyone I’ve always admired and wanted to meet in person. Finally, I would get to hug Minnie Pearl, Flannery O’Connor, Martha Carson, James Dillet Freeman, Norman Vincent Peale and all my heroes. I’d love to think there will be walls and walls of flowers that change continually and all our pets that have died. One of the biblical writers said we when we see Jesus we will be like Him for we will see Him as He is. That surely means we do not fully know Him as He is. Can you imagine seeing someone and instantly being transformed in beautiful ways just by their Presence? I read a beautiful story about a man and his dog dying in a car wreck and going up to the pearly gate and St. Peter telling the man he couldn’t take his dog into heaven. He asked for time for a final visit with his dog. As he tried to comfort himself and his dog, he realized he could not part with him, so he told St. Peter he didn’t want to go in if he couldn’t take his dog. St. Peter said, “I was testing you. You would not have been considered worthy of heaven if you had been willing to give up your dog. You may enter.” That’s my kind of heaven. |
