Rant of the Week

Heaven

When I was a child I thought that heaven would be a land of free ice cream and pop and salt & vinegar chips and I would be able to fly and no one would ever, ever have sex.

When I was in high school, I was taught that there would be no wars or conflict in heaven and that, in fact, heaven would be a lot like earth, except perfect. But still no sex.

In college, some of my professors admitted they had no reasonable idea of what heaven would be like. Others sustained my denomination's embrace of the idea that heaven was really something like a new earth, wherein the lion would lie down with the lamb. Lions do not kill animals and eat them in heaven. Do birds still kill worms?

It's about 30 years later... I still have no idea of what heaven will be like. I'm pretty sure it won't be a separate place. It's going to be here. It might even be a lot like life here and now, except that we would have God with us. We'd know he was here, with us. Maybe we would just think everything's fine.