The Undiscovered Country

Imagining Heaven

I always say, “If I have nothing to worry about, something’s wrong.”

In other words, I will find something to worry about, no matter how trivial, simply because I must have something to worry about. It’s in my nature.

One line in the first Matrix movie describes this attitude perfectly. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie, so it will be paraphrased. Mr Smith described to Neo the first Matrix and why it failed, “We created the perfect world for you. There were no problems, no disease, no crime, no struggles. Humans simply couldn’t believe such a world possible, so they kept waking up. Entire crops were lost, and we had to start over.”

Look at Americans in particular. Most of us want for nothing as far as simple living day to day is concerned. Still we moan when things don't go the way we expect, or we find some kind of crusade to fill our little ‘worry box’ with, no matter how trivial it seems to others.

Compare that to people in third-world countries. They don’t care whether or not smoking will take 5-10 years off their life or the life of someone they love. They don’t have any idea what global warming is, let alone want to do something about it. They don’t care about the chemicals in their food; they just want to eat. They instead focus all their mental and physical energies on surviving the next day, and doing their best to help their family also survive the next day.

You could easily say Americans are spoiled. True enough, but I think we also need to struggle. It’s what drives us to constantly better our circumstances. Because mankind has been struggling for thousands of years, it’s innate to our nature. No amount of prosperity will change that, both on an individual and societal level.

I think that’s also why we have trouble imagining Heaven. There we will also not have to worry, struggle, fear disease, death or pain. Paradise. Still, I can’t wrap my mind around spending an eternity like that. In some ways it sounds boring.

I do have a small vision of Heaven, though. I want to spend my eternity getting to know God and all of his creation, and I mean all of it. I want him to take me on a tour of his universe, from the largest of galaxies, to the smallest of creatures. It will take an eternity, I’m sure. Whether or not it will happen that way doesn’t matter. But it’s my vision, and in this life at least, I’m sticking to it.

Do you have a vision of Heaven? If so, I’d love for you to describe it to me.