This text is striking. Genesis introduced us to God and the Garden, with a tree in its center from which man was forbidden to eat. Revelation closes the Bible with man in paradise eating from the tree denied him in the beginning. Bible literature is complete. I am a reader and a listener. I scan printed material, reading some of it in detail. I review about fifty or so themes that, in my view, should occupy the consideration of persons because they impinge on the meaning of life and what ultimately lights each person’s existence. When after life is the subject, I wonder why so many writers are satisfied with what they conjure in their own minds, and seem to offer small regard, if any at all, from history’s information. Much of what they write seems to generate from wishful thinking, or even emotional oddities of reports, including denials and swoons, because these are so appealing to listeners and readers, seemingly true by personal circumlocutions.
Milton’s, Paradise Lost, is taken as both religious and secular. It was once required regional reading for many serious students. In our pluralistic and humanistic society of the current era, anything related to paradise is largely the gentle fantasy of wanderers, intent on gaining paradise, if it exists, in something of a super earth. Some books and media programs offer the inspirations of authors who follow thoughtful but fated elderly men and women in the months before death, and build a case for life based on the best that may be found in discussion about overcoming the ordeal of an imminent end. The result is a projected paradise, if any, where the questions of earth are answered; where relationships are enjoyed; and, where deceased friends look down, smile and cheer on those who loved them. It seems not to be a place of forgetting; a place where the primary activity is to enjoy God; a place where one learns beyond natural laws and limits; a place of inestimable achievement; a place of perfect holiness; a place that is not any more attached to the womb of nature than an adult is attached to the seed and womb of his or her parents. We do not remember our life of the womb, but it was so. The mother yields her child to outside nature at birth. Ultimately this nature womb (earth) yields to something outside it (heaven).
I called on an elderly couple. They had been married for seventy years. They sat silently in their rocking chairs saying almost nothing to each other or anyone else although responsive when spoken to. I was in my early thirties and they were in their mid-nineties. What did I have to say other than to read a few Bible verses and pray with them, perhaps ask a few questions about this or that? The question of heaven came up. They were on that door step. I wondered what might be said that would be helpful, but the old gentlemen took over when he said, I know that heaven is there with the Lord present, and I am unsure about whether I will know my wife there, but I do know in my heart that whatever it is it is all right. His response was about as wise as any I have ever heard about what heaven will be like – whatever it is will be all right. If we wish to build our dreams and theories, we may, but it is unlikely that even faith persons are competent to embrace much of what a loving God has in store for them. Heaven, even for the heavenly minded, is going to be something of a surprise. We have inadequate language to describe it, even if we knew the reality. We are emotional persons, wanting feeling with our thoughts, especially our best thoughts. The world’s problems in interpersonal relationships are highly related to emotions. Cerebral treatment would seek solutions. Emotional treatment implies misunderstanding to favor or disfavor the circumstances related to persons and nations. Faith attempts to bring together the belief that God recognizes our needs in all and that will be made all right. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020