HEAVEN MADE SPECIAL
Listen, I have some idea that God must be the center of all our longings and purposes and I have a hint of how awesome he is and I fully accept [as fully as a sinner like me can] that anything good that ever came to me came from his gracious hand. When I pray or just sit silent in his presence such things come to mind and they have the approval of my mind and heart—I can’t deny that but…
He’s too big for me to put my arms around him to hug him and if I’m to tell the truth the thought of hugging him isn’t something that comes into my longings as I relate to him. Now Jesus I can get some fellow-feeling about because he is God with name, rank, serial number and a Galilean accent. Still, he’s now the exalted Lord. Yes, I know, his character is the same but I’m a bit on the insecure side even with accomplished friends of mine so you can guess that my feelings about Jesus aren’t the “cosy” kind. On top of all that, I’ve never seen him. I believe it’s right that I should love God for what he is “in himself” but I’m not up to that challenge yet.
It’s at this point that the thought of my Ethel really helps me. When I’m having difficulty “getting in touch” with God or Jesus because of their glory and majesty, I think warm thoughts of them because they gave me my Ethel. God’s glory and majesty doesn’t mean he is aloof from me [or anyone else—Acts 17:27] or doesn’t care—it does mean that I can’t always make it through to that warmth that so many others feel [and I don’t deny that that warmth is real for them].
But my Ethel makes heaven a different place for me.
I’m not interested in a discussion about “heaven” right now. [There are some pieces on the site that lightly touch on it.] But I know it’s not a geographical location in some part of the universe that you can go to in a rocket. It’s a word I think the Bible uses to describe a mode of being that isn’t earth-bound. Whatever else it is, Jesus is “there” with God and my Ethel is with Jesus [Philippians 1:23] and that makes “heaven” more heavenly for me.
Exupéry’s The Little Prince [click here]has something to teach us here [well, at least it is in touch with my sense of things and offers me sympathy and understanding]. The little prince has gone to earth and left his rose behind on his very tiny planet. He discovered his rose was not the only rose in the universe and that in that sense it was just another rose. But he had committed himself to that rose and in the relationship the rose was no longer like any other rose in the entire universe. Knowing this he now knew that his planet was no longer just another little planet in the heavens because it was the only planet that held the rose that was unlike all the other roses in the universe. Now when he looked up his little planet shone even brighter. But that meant that heaven itself was no longer just a heaven that held millions of planets. It now held his planet so everything had changed. [Didn’t JB Phillips teach us that when he told us about a senior angel who was giving a junior angel a guided tour through the universe? When he came to the planet earth, Phillips tells us, in a hushed way he said, “That’s the visited planet!” The one the young Lord himself had gone to. With that truth the planet was no longer ordinary and even the universe had changed.]
I know God is “in” heaven and that finally that’s all that matters and one day I’ll be able to say that with the fullness of understanding and joy. In the meantime, while I struggle toward maturity, I don’t think he’s angry at my thinking that my Ethel’s being there gives it a special glory for I believe that he gave me Ethel so we could both “tame” each other and learn what commitment, forgiveness, love and faith are.
I don’t know how to finish this so…
The end.
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