My husband and I were talking about the concepts of Heaven and Hell today. I always thought it was strange that Hell should be a place below filled with fire and hot and that Heaven is up above, and the thermostat worked well. After spending several years being cold most of the time, I am thoroughly convinced that if Hell is a place, it is ice cold.
I thought for the longest time that the best way to describe Heaven and Hell isn’t as a place but as how close a person is to God. After all, when we die, all material possessions are left behind, so gold and riches won’t matter. Yet being close to the Creator will.
Then, today I was thinking about how even that doesn’t really work out too well because time and space transcend life after death. I also realize that I need to live my life for today and not for some reward at the end. So, I was left with wondering if Heaven and Hell even matter.
This afternoon, I was cleaning grapes. I stood at my kitchen sink with some water. I felt the cool liquid on my fingers as I sloshed it around the grapes. Then, I held the vine with my left hand and I twisted the wet grapes with my right hand so that they would fall from the vine into the bowl. Every time a grape twisted and released from the vine, it felt good. For just a little while, I felt transported into that moment. I wasn’t thinking about the past or the future. I wasn’t thinking about work, bills, or anything in my everyday life. All that existed for me in that moment were those grapes and my hands. I thought to myself Heaven isn’t a place and it isn’t a distance; Heaven is a feeling.
God transcends the duality of right and wrong and when He gave us freewill (when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge) we became beings of duality. Heaven is being able to transcend that duality again and understand God in a whole new way. I guess that might be the whole catch to it. When a person dies, if their spirit is ready to transcend, then it must be something amazing, miraculous and beyond belief. However, if a person never opened their heart or learned anything in their life, then what happens?
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
