A Beautiful Place: Aslan's Country

[Goldenrod22]

I thought it would be neat to do a very light-hearted post about Heaven (referred to in Narnia as Aslan's Country). This is not a post for debate: If you do not believe in Heaven, then please do not make a post here. If you do believe in Heaven, I would just like to hear what you think it would be like.

Here is what I mean. Heaven to me would be a beautiful place, full of light and warmth and eternal happiness. All of the people I knew and loved who died would be there, glad to see me and having a great time before I even got there. The former presidents like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan would be there (to name a few) and I would actually get to meet them! Imagine seeing Adam and Eve, Moses, and Abraham. They would welcome me with shouts of "Welcome!" and I would run to greet them. What an honor! And the ground would be so light beneath my feet, helping me to run faster then I could ever have run before. And then...then...there He is. My Creator, my Maker, my best friend. Jesus walks towards me, his scarred hands outstretched towards me. He is smiling, his face seeming to radiate with the purest joy and love. I am welcome, I, a sinner. He has forgiven me, and now...this! I feel his warm embrace as he whispers,
"Welcome, welcome, my child."
And I am finally home.

[Hope96]

I feel your emotions completely. I love the old hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" Jennifer Knapp does a beautiful version of this song. The last verse really stirs emotions within me about that glorious day. There's one phrase that says "...when my faith shall be sight" WOW.

Just thinking about that day gets me. My life revolves around church, God, and my faith. But right now, that's how I'm living, completely on faith. Because I cannot physically see God, I'm trusting that what I feel is true and right. But one day, one glorious AWESOME day I will see everything I live for in the here and now, in person, right in front of me. I am almost overwhelmed with the image as I type this.

And when I think about getting to Heaven, I like you imagine actually being able to sit down and talk with all of those I've read about in the bible. And seeing my friends and loved ones who have gone on before me. But more than anything else......looking into the loving eyes, touching the nail scarred hands, and talking to the one who gave His life for me! Man what a day that will be!!

[inkspot]

For some reason -- probably on a bumpy plane ride -- I was considering what would actually happen when I die. I think about the battle outside the gates to Sauron's stronghold in LOTR ROTK, when absolutely everything was going downhill: in the movie, Aragorn was about to get stomped by some big, hideous thing, and Legolas was vainly trying to cross the battlefield to get to him, and the forces of good were hopelessly outnumbered and doomed ... it was the bitter end. Then out of nowhere, far away the ring fell into the fires of Mt. Doom, the power of Sauron was broken, and defeat was swallowed up in victory.

I think that's how it will be when we die if we're conscious of it: the very worst is happening to us and around us, and then suddenly all that vanishes like a bad dream, and we wake up at home, the first and only real "home," the one we've been searching for all our life, and just in the next room is the One Person who has been guiding us here through all circumstances of our life, and when we walk through that door, He'll be there -- And we'll know Him, although we have never seen Him before, we'll know Him -- it was You, Jesus, it was You who brought me out of despair into joy, it was You who turned my defeat into victory ...

That will be heaven!

[waterhogboy]

Ooooooooo. Contrary to my post in another thread about guys being cold and heartless - I must admit that made me go a bit shivery!!!!

[inked]

Read THE GREAT DIVORCE by CS Lewis and PURGATORIO and PARADISIO by Dante (in the Dorothy L. Sayers translations and notes) for excellent views on heaven. Much too involved to try to make a synopsis, I think! But all portray the greater reality we shall enter: to know Him and be known by Him!

[inkspot]

that made me go a bit shivery!!!!
What any writer likes to hear! Thanx WHB. But you didn't give your views on heaven?

[legolas]

I think that's how it will be when we die if we're conscious of it: the very worst is happening to us and around us, and then suddenly all that vanishes like a bad dream.

Well, I have never looked at it like that, but, I have always thought of it as, well, perfect. As soon as your body is dead, you will have like, a journey. The Bible says that when we die will come to a test, or, we will be judged before we get to heaven.

[inkspot]

In Psalm 17:15, the author says to God, "As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness." That's heaven: to see His face and awaken in His likeness.

And 2 Corinthians 5:7-8 says, "For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." I think that seems like as soon as we leave this world, we will be united with our Beloved in the next -- present with the Lord!

[waterhogboy]

What any writer likes to hear! Thanx WHB. But you didn't give your views on heaven?

Indeed I didn't. I don't want to though because, I'm so appalling at expressing myself, I dont want to make heaven seem trivial and nondescript. Id make it sound rather boring - which isnt at all wot itll be llike. So, Id much rather leave it to those who can speak proper and who write like wot people oughta!

[Mudpuddle]

One of the very best parts of Heaven is that we all will be changed. The Dark Side to our make-ups will be completely gone - the urge to sin, the double mindedness, depresssions, fear etc...all the garbage will be totally done away with, never to be seen again. I can't even imagine what it will be like to be so completely but wonderfully changed.

[legolas]

Well, I think one thing that we all agree on is that Heaven will be more perfect that humanly amaginable. My dad is an amateur astronamer. That may be why I picked that Signature. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Psalm 19:1

It's a very good verse, but heaven, I think we all agree, will be better then that.

[Goldenrod22]

A Joyous Reunion
by Goldenrod

See his face, glowing like the Sun,
A long, hard-fought journey, the end has now begun,
The footsteps I have taken have drawn me close to harms,
I feel though, now, the safety of the Lord's outstretching arms,
Close to those I knew and loved, their journeys long since past,
I can run with winged feet now, and I've never run so fast.
The hills are warm, they hold the songs, of many martyrs true,
I leap and tumble and follow the ridge, and listen just for you.
Why have you not come, what held you back, was it sinful pride?
You hardened your heart, my dearest friend, you never let Him inside.
And now I run with joyous face the race that I completed,
I wonder though, would you be here, if Satan were defeated?
But no, it was the thing you lacked that kept you from this place,
You did not see the joy that came from seeing Jesus's face.
You did not try to live the life, that he would have adored,
And now I run over hills alone, and for you look no more.

[waterhogboy]

Wow - did you write that. Its great!....

[inkspot]

Nice, GR!

I don't think in heaven we'll be able to grieve for the ones that didn't make it, maybe we won't remember them ... somehow there will be no tears of sadness, right?

[waterhogboy]

Ive wondered that... I wouldnt want to forget my non-Christian friends, but it would be heartbreaking to know where they were.

However - not all tears are wrong....

[legolas]

Wow! That is a neat poem! It just explains about everything that has been and hasn't been said! :)

[Goldenrod22]

Thank you.

Hey Inkspot and Waterhogboy...I think you won't cry in heaven (there is some verse in the Bible that says you won't...can't find it though!*blush*) because you will be too busy up there!
I just used the 'crying' concept in my poem.

P.S. Have you guys ever had pets that died? Do you think they will be in heaven?

[inkspot]

Yah, one of my clients has a video teaching called "Animals in Heaven," and he uses a lot of verses from the Bible that show different kinds of beasts in heaven. And he reasons that if all your deepest desires are fulfilled in heaven, wouldn't God also provide you with your faithful pets? He quotes a lot of other theologians, including Billy Graham, in their belief that beloved pets will be in heaven. The video also talks about some of the amazing abilities animals have, and some of the wonderful things they've done ... it's cool.

[Goldenrod22]

Interesting!

What about food in Heaven?

In the Bible it speaks about there being the Tree from the Garden of Eden, and you can eat the fruits.

Has anyone else ever heard about this?

[inkspot]

Did anyone see that movie (years ago, probably you weren't born) "Defending Your Life"? In this version of the after life, you immediately go to a big resort area after death and spend a few days waiting for your fate to be decided. You go to a kind of trial in a courtroom and defend your life as to whether you should be allowed to the next plane of existence or sent back to to TRY AGAIN in another life. Pure rot as far as theology, but: in the few days you get to wander this resort waiting for your trial, you can eat all you want at these fabulous restaurants and not gain weight or be unhealthy.

So Albert Brooks meets Meryl Streep there, and she tells him a few nights before she died, she had a dream of a place where you could eat all you want. "You think you dreamed of coming here?" he says,impressed. "No," she says, "I think I was dreaming of Sizzler ..."

If you don't have Sizzler near you, it's this low-end steakhouse ... but that made me laugh, thinking about food in the after life -- will it be like food here, or will the fruit, say, be so delicious and so filling that we don't want any bread or meat or ice cream sundaes? I can't imagine it. Didn't Jesus eat some fish with His disciples after the resurrection? So maybe there's normal kinds of food after we die ...

[Goldenrod22]

Whatever you eat, I think that it will nourish you, but you won't ever be hungry. Does this make any sense to you?
Because we don't have any pain in heaven.

[inkspot]

I think the Scriptures say eventually we will be celebrating at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Jesus), which sounds like a good feed to me, Jesus'wedding banquet ...

[holyboy]

It will probably be spiritual food served, not actually a banquet. Jesus did say that the bread that God will give will be everlasting bread, where you will never go hungry again

[waterhogboy]

Hmmmmm... but the thing is. A lovely feeling on earth is the feeling of satisfying hunger. So will you never get that feeling in heaven, because you cant go hungry???

[inked]

You folks really need to read THE GREAT DIVORCE by CS Lewis! Great speculations on heaven (not articles of faith necessarily as regards specifics!) Oh, and don't skip his introduction! It's really helpful in these regards. :D

[pegasus62]

You folks really need to read THE GREAT DIVORCE by CS Lewis! Great speculations on heaven (not articles of faith necessarily as regards specifics!) Oh, and don't skip his introduction! It's really helpful in these regards. :D

Read it. Thanks for the advice anyway. :cool:

[EveningStar]

What I think...was summed up in a short poem I wrote for a Tiger Cub's tombstone. His epitaph was as follows:

THE GENTLE KINGDOM

By Heaven's waters sweet and clean
A herd of wildebeests was seen
Relieving thirst, and by their side
The members of a lion pride

A cub and calf engage in play
As side by side their elders lay
And angels kneel with mercy mild
To touch the calf and lion child

[PeterC]

Its paradise...The ultimate reward.

[pokemainiac]

I personnaly can't imagine it. It is probably God all around us and in us. Eternal happiness. Everything on Earth is like a million hells compared to heaven.

[EveningStar]

Everything on Earth is like a million hells compared to heaven.I see. Well next time I pass you on Nolensville Pike, I'll honk at you. I recognized it from the description.... ;)

[Pardine]

I see. Well next time I pass you on Nolensville Pike, I'll honk at you. I recognized it from the description.... ;)

Yep.

Nolensville and Harding, right, my friend? Spot on description of that place.

[~Lava~]

Well, I really like the view of Heaven in the Last Battle as a place where no good thing from anywhere is lost (like the Professor's House). It would be a place teaming with life, love, and filled to the brim with Pure, Real Joy. And then there is God, Triune and Perfect, completely filling the place. We would see all of those who have gone to heaven before us and learn so much about our life why we had to go through the things that we went through. We would not want things that weren't holy and pleasing to God.

I also like the way that Lewis describes death in the Screwtape Letters:

"There was a sudden clearing of his eyes (was there not?) as he saw you for the first time, and recognised the part you had had in him and knew that you had it no longer. Just think (and let it be the beginning of your agony) what he felt at that moment; as if a scab had fallen from an old sore, as if he were emerging from a hideous, shell-like tetter, as if he shuffled off for good and all a defiled, wet, clinging garment....Did you mark how naturally—as if he'd been born for it—the earthborn vermin entered the new life? How all his doubts became, in the twinkling of an eye, ridiculous? I know what the creature was saying to itself! "Yes. Of course. It always was like this. All horrors have followed the same course, getting worse and worse and forcing you into a kind of bottle-neck till, at the very moment when you thought you must be crushed, behold! you were out of the narrows and all was suddenly well. The extraction hurt more and more and then the tooth was out. The dream became a nightmare and then you woke. You die and die and then you are beyond death. How could I ever have doubted it?

As he saw you, he also saw Them. I know how it was. You reeled back dizzy and blinded, more hurt by them than he had ever been by bombs. The degradation of it!—that this thing of earth and slime could stand upright and converse with spirits before whom you, a spirit, could only cower. Perhaps you had hoped that the awe and strangeness of it would dash his joy. But that is the cursed thing; the gods are strange to mortal eyes, and yet they are not strange. He had no faintest conception till that very hour of how they would look, and even doubted their existence. But when he saw them he knew that he had always known them and realised what part each one of them had played at many an hour in his life when he had supposed himself alone, so that now he could say to them, one by one, not "Who are you?" but "So it was you all the time". All that they were and said at this meeting woke memories. The dim consciousness of friends about him which had haunted his solitudes from infancy was now at last explained; that central music in every pure experience which had always just evaded memory was now at last recovered. Recognition made him free of their company almost before the limbs of his corpse became quiet. Only you were left outside.

He saw not only Them; he saw Him. This animal, this thing begotten in a bed, could look on Him. What is blinding, suffocating fire to you, is now cool light to him, is clarity itself, and wears the form of a Man. You would like, if you could, to interpret the patient's prostration in the Presence, his self-abhorrence and utter knowledge of his sins (yes, Wormwood, a clearer knowledge even than yours) on the analogy of your own choking and paralysing sensations when you encounter the deadly air that breathes from the heart of Heaven. But it's all nonsense. Pains he may still have to encounter, but they embrace those pains. They would not barter them for any earthly pleasure. All the delights of sense, or heart, or intellect, with which you could once have tempted him, even the delights of virtue itself, now seem to him in comparison but as the half nauseous attractions of a raddled harlot would seem to a man who hears that his true beloved whom he has loved all his life and whom he had believed to be dead is alive and even now at his door. He is caught up into that world where pain and pleasure take on transfinite values and all our arithmetic is dismayed.(C.S. Lewis, the Screwtape Letters, Letter 31)"

[dawnpatrol]

Then darkness changed to dawning
And I heard the sound of voices
The air was warm around me
I stood beside a stream

And Abraham was speaking
To the multitude before him
Of the unfolding of the answer
To our prayers and hopes and dreams

Then far across the chasm,
Came a rumbling like the thunder
And the Prince of Peace came shining
From his mouth the power streamed

And the walls and towers crumbled
And the gates of hell went under
As thousands sang the victory
"We have been redeemed!"

Jesus is the Lord of all!
Jesus is the Lord of all!
Jesus is the Lord of all!
We have been redeemed!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A3ViBShIaw
Too Small a Price / Joy

[Lucy Fan]

I think everything will be more brighter and more beautiful than we can even comprehend. The air will be one million times cleaner and fresher, and maybe it'll be like Spring all the time. Bright green grass, the trees full of green leaves, a bright blue sky, and everyone is always happy and just at peace. Think of the most beautiful place you've seen or been to and times it by I don't know infinity. That's what I imagine and hope for. :)

[Mozart the Meerkitten]

This is what I think Heaven will be like:

I stand in a field with flowers, white and purple and I'll see all the people who came before me who I know and some I don't know, I'll see my grandparents who I've missed so much, I'll see my friends I knew in this world, I'll see all my cats and kittens and all those poor little meerkats. And then coming torwads me I'll see Jesus with my sister whom I never met and never saw. I'll stand there and around me all will be still. Jesus comes to me holding my older sister's hand and for the very first time I'll hug my sister. And Jesus will rap His arms around us and it will be perfect, absolutely positivly perfect. Then I'll take my sister's hand and we'll run, but we shall never grow tired. We will run to the bigest waterfall there is in Heaven and we will do something I always wanted to do ever since I read the last Narnia book. We will climb the Waterfall. I with my sister Belesha and I will have my kitten Mozart on my right shoulder and Caspian her brother on my left, and my sister shall have Dorthy and Toto the other little kittens on her's. We will climb climb up the Waterfall together. when we reach the top we will sit on the green grass and laugh wet and happy. We will be as sisters should be under a sun that never sets.Amen.

[prince_caspian]

Heaven is four dimensional. :DAnd we get to ask C.S. Lewis about Narnia!

[inkspot]

This is what I think Heaven will be like:

I stand in a field with flowers, white and purple and I'll see all the people who came before me who I know and some I don't know, I'll see my grandparents who I've missed so much, I'll see my friends I knew in this world, I'll see all my cats and kittens and all those poor little meerkats. And then coming torwads me I'll see Jesus with my sister whom I never met and never saw. I'll stand there and around me all will be still. Jesus comes to me holding my older sister's hand and for the very first time I'll hug my sister. And Jesus will rap His arms around us and it will be perfect, absolutely positivly perfect. Then I'll take my sister's hand and we'll run, but we shall never grow tired. We will run to the bigest waterfall there is in Heaven and we will do something I always wanted to do ever since I read the last Narnia book. We will climb the Waterfall. I with my sister Belesha and I will have my kitten Mozart on my right shoulder and Caspian her brother on my left, and my sister shall have Dorthy and Toto the other little kittens on her's. We will climb climb up the Waterfall together. when we reach the top we will sit on the green grass and laugh wet and happy. We will be as sisters should be under a sun that never sets.Amen.
Aw, that was very sweet.
Heaven is four dimensional. And we get to ask C.S. Lewis about Narnia!
What does it mean, four dimensional?

[EveningStar]

Height, width, breadth, and MEANING.

[prince_caspian]

Search on Wikipedia for "hypercube".

[Mozart the Meerkitten]

Search on Wikipedia for "hypercube".

what does a 'hypercube' have to do with Heaven/Aslan's Country?:confused:

[EveningStar]

Hypercube? Why not talk about Klein Bottles and hyperspheres? :D

I've always thought about it as a place where we can be where we think, rather than coming up with some sort of Star Trek explanation:

Yes, Scotty. We need to reconfigure the front deflector dish to emit an asynchronous chronoton pulse. I need it in two hours...

[inkspot]

Nah, I am too lazy. You have to be able to explain it in your own words or else I am justified in supposing you don't know what you're talking about. :)

I like John's explanation, anyway, height, width, breadth and meaning.

[PuzzleGlum]

I don't have any basis for thinking this, but I like to think it anyway:

We all know that when we go to Heaven, we will find almost all of those people on earth we so loved. Including our husband or wife.

But, what if you never met the right guy/girl in life? What if that special someone never came along?

I suspect that God will come up to those who haven't found a love on earth. God will present a person, and say "This is the one I meant for you." And in Heaven, you won't have to worry about courting or dating. And you can live through eternity in great happiness with God and the spouse you never knew existed on earth.

Actually, this sounds kind of silly...

[Miss.SunFlower]

I don't have any basis for thinking this, but I like to think it anyway:

We all know that when we go to Heaven, we will find almost all of those people on earth we so loved. Including our husband or wife.

But, what if you never met the right guy/girl in life? What if that special someone never came along?

I suspect that God will come up to those who haven't found a love on earth. God will present a person, and say "This is the one I meant for you." And in Heaven, you won't have to worry about courting or dating. And you can live through eternity in great happiness with God and the spouse you never knew existed on earth.

Actually, this sounds kind of silly...

*shakes head* no it doesn't! That sounds very much like something God would do for us.

[Into the Wardrobe]

Actually Puzzleglum, Jesus said that people would not marry or be given in marriage in heaven. It won't be an issue. If we don't find that sort of thing in this life, then we don't and that's ok. There will be more important things for us to focus on there. He talked about that when the Sadducees were questioning him about 7 brothers who left behind a wife with no children. (Mark 12:24)

Personally I can't help but agree with Psyche in Till We Have Faces. I find joy in the longing for heaven. To find out where all the beauty came from.

I long to run to the Lord as Lucy ran to Aslan and burried her face in his mane. Yet at the same time if I can get off the floor in His presence it will be amazing.

[Matt]

This is a wonderful discussion. I also come at this from a Biblical perspective. It is something that has always been almost a source of frustration for me since it is something that I can't know the answer to until I am there. Especially the idea of living in an eternal state of being. But I love CS Lewis' ideas (in The Last Battle and The Great Divorce) of it being a REAL reality. More real than we have ever experienced. Like our whole life was just a dream. The writer of Hebrews (as well as Plato) describes earthly things as a shadow of reality.

One thing that bothers me is what Jesus says about us not marrying in heaven. In a sense, this makes me very sad because of how much I love my wife. I would love to spend eternity married to her. But, I think this reflects my lack of faith, because the Bible describes our relationship to Christ in heaven as a marriage. So that when we are in a perfect relationship with Jesus and everyone else in heaven, it elevates every relationship to a more full and perfect loving relationship than we can ever imagine.

Also, while most people dream of just hanging out by calm streams all day, I imagine that it will entail eternal service to Christ and one another. But instead of burdensome service, service because of unmet needs, or service that makes us tired, it will be loving God and one another in a perfect way. I think we will find REST by fulfilling our perfect purpose of selflessness.

[EveningStar]

Matt, you'd better believe we'll be busy in the time to come. Only our labours will be a pleasure, not a burden.

As for marriage, well, as lovely as marital intimacy is, it is a necessary part of propagating mortal species. There will be other forms of intimacy in Heaven where we never die and never need replacements, and I bet they'll be better. And if you really, really love your wife, she'll still be your best friend. Nobody's going to tell you that you have to spend as much time with other women as you do with your own Mom, Sister, and Wife. It's your clique.

As for the Bible being very clear on Heaven, there are two reasons why it's not.

First the purpose of the Bible is not to get you so wrapped up in what's happening 50 years from now that you throw away your youth mooning over the long wait. If Christmas was all I had to look forward to, I'd ignore the spring flowers, the warm summer afternoons, the crisp Autumn air and the changing of the leaves. I'd keep my attention on Saint Nick and what was going to end up in my stockings. And that is just plain wrong. The Bible tells you how to live now, to enjoy the Spring, Summer and Fall. You're alive now and here. Eternal life begins NOW, not when you DIE. That's why I like the term "Life After Life" rather than "Life After Death".

Second, quite frankly, you're in no condition now to understand what's coming down the pike. So you got a point and shoot camera that cost $200 at Wal Mart and comes in cheesy candy-wrapper colours. You want to know how to take excellent pictures...to be all that you can be. So I launch into a rhapsodic description of Ansel Adams' Zone Exposure Method, the Rule of Threes, the rule of Sunny 16, and the relationship of Key, Fill, Top, Kicker and Backdrop lights. Even if you understood those terms, you don't have a camera that can do those things YET. That big honkin' dSLR in your future has those knobs, those levers. But right now I need to tell you what you can do now with the equipment you have.

God could use a bunch of terms that made no sense to you now. He would be wasting his words. As far as I know, God never wastes words.

[PuzzleGlum]

Actually Puzzleglum, Jesus said that people would not marry or be given in marriage in heaven. It won't be an issue. If we don't find that sort of thing in this life, then we don't and that's ok. There will be more important things for us to focus on there. He talked about that when the Sadducees were questioning him about 7 brothers who left behind a wife with no children. (Mark 12:24)

Personally I can't help but agree with Psyche in Till We Have Faces. I find joy in the longing for heaven. To find out where all the beauty came from.

I long to run to the Lord as Lucy ran to Aslan and burried her face in his mane. Yet at the same time if I can get off the floor in His presence it will be amazing.

Sorry. I didn't mean that we'd get married in heaven. I'm talking purely about relationships.

If I get to Heaven, and my family will be there, I think I'll love and treat my mother as my mother, love and treat my dad as my dad, and my brothers (although we'll all be brothers and sisters) will still have that special place in my heart. Sure, marriage won't exist in heaven, but what I was referring to was the special relationship between a man and a woman.

[Destiny J. Adams]

The only thing that comes to mind is the song by MercyMe. I Can Only Imagine

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side

I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

[Chorus]

I can only imagine [x2]

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever, forever worship you

I can only imagine


This song says it all for me. The Bible says that we can't even begin what Heaven is like. But that doesn't stop me from dreaming, I cannot wait until I get there. To see Jesus Christ face to face is...scary, but exciting as well.

[inkspot]

Welcome Adams. I didn't see you post before. There's another Mercy Me song about heaven now, "When I Finally Make It Home."

It puzzles me a little because the first verse is about greeting their dead father and talking to him, then the second verse is about Jesus. For me, I think if I got to heaven and Jesus wasn't the first one I saw, I woul be miffed. No offense to my dead Grandparents, Dad and Friends, but Jesus really is the whole point, to me ...

... maybe I am crazy ...

[Lioness_of_God]

Inkspot, I do not think you are... I think we all have our visions of heaven, but who knows? We see through this glass without clarity. DJ Adams, I agree with you about I Can Only Imagine... They played that song at my grandmother's memorial service, and every time I hear it, the song provokes thoughts about Heaven and what it will be like... what will we do? Where will we go first? ...What can our mortal minds comprehend about heaven?