Skip to main content

READING IN HEAVEN, ETC

 READING IN HEAVEN, ETC.

A FB friend asked me if I thought we would read in heaven because she didn't have time to read "down here". This was my response and since then several other friends have asked me to re-post it.
Of course we can. The actual translation of "in my house are many mansions" as in John 14 is "In my house are many rooms". I take that to mean heaven is one big house for the one big family of God with all these different rooms.
#1 the most magnificent library ever. Remember that John wrote that if he had been able to write down everything Jesus said or did, that the world could not contain all the books that could be written! But heaven can! God wants us to have knowledge. I think it was Hosea who wrote that "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
#2 the largest dining room ever imagined. The Bible says we shall eat angels' food and refers to the corn of heaven so I am thinking the longest fattest cobs of corn dripping with butter and salt because salt won't kill us there. And the butter will be non-fattening. I'm thinking the angels will grow this special corn in the soil of heaven, ain't nothin' could be better than that!
#3 The largest convention hall in the universe with ongoing lectures by our favorite Biblical characters. Joseph will tell us how he withstood temptation and kept trusting God when it seemed God had forgotten him. Abraham will tell us how it felt to think he was going to have to kill his only son, the promised Son, only to get to see the angel appear and stop his knife just micro inches from Isaac's chest.
Moses will tell us how he picked up that huge snake by the tail just before it turned into a rod. Daniel will tell us about all his dreams and also how it felt to spend the night in the lions' den using that big furry lion as a pillow and felt no fear because the lions knew he was "nothing but backbone".
Paul wil tell us how it felt to finally be healed of the thorn in the flesh.
#4 and since we now see things dimly through a glass but there we will see everything clearly, our understanding will be broadened and we will know why everything that has puzzled us for years will be made plain, why my 16 year old sister had to die in a car wreck, etc.
What a great place heaven will be, and since it is eternity we will have as much time to read as we will need.
© JOAN  ROWDEN HART 2023

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COMMUNION ON THE MOON

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. (Melody Beattie) Americans need a day dedicated to gratitude. I have noticed that in the lineup of most of our holidays that Thanksgiving is perhaps the one least given over to secularism - the one we still observe in a traditional fashion. We need it to keep our focus clear and to teach our children what it means to be thankful for family, friendship and faith. We need a time to gather around the table with extended family and enjoy turkey and dressing and gravy, two kinds of potatoes, cranberries, hot rolls, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and whipped cream. We need it, not for the calories, but to create an awareness that there are those who don’t have those blessings, because in the hectic pace of our everyday lives we tend to forget those in need. Family and food are important, but above all else, Americans need a rededication to our faith. Faith brought the pilgrims to the ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

Passion

  “Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age”..  (James Joyce) I’ve often been accused of being too passionate, of caring too much about certain things.  But I believe that  passion, also defined as fervor or zeal, is  one of the essential core values of human life, along with the Apostle Paul’s Biblical list of the virtues of faith, hope and charity.  Passionate people have strong opinions and usually articulate them very well.  We are also perfectionists, and we don’t handle incompetence in the public arena very well, all of which tend to preclude us from being the most popular person in the room.  I long ago accepted the fact that I won’t have the largest funeral in Lebanon, nor will my obituary make the front page. But not everyone seems to care that much about anything other than their own lives.  T.S. Eliot once said, “It is obvious that we can no more explain pas...
Post a Comment
Read more

ANNIE, THE CAT'S MEOW

  I first met Annie back in February 2004 after Milan told me to let him know what I wanted for for Valentine’s Day and he promised would get it for me no matter what it was. He has often joked that he should have have put some conditions on that. But he didn’t, and so I headed straight to the Humane Society animal shelter. It had been two long years since we had put our beloved Maine Coon cat to sleep, a big pile of what appeared to be nothing but fur, but had a huge heart hidden inside. We had named him Ollie in honor of Col. Oliver North who was our news hero at the time. I entered the cat compound at the Humane Society. There were only two cats inside, a brown tabby who ran to the other side of the pen away from me, and a little black and white girl who came running over to me and when I picked her up, she snuggled her head under my chin and began to purr. It was love at first sight. She was new there and they had not given her a name so I called her Annie. She was alway...
Post a Comment
Read more