Paradise

 

It looks like large puffy white clouds. It smells like lavender. It is the fresh scent of clothes hanging in the day time sun. You are with all your love ones. I will be perfect in everything I do. These are some of the answers I get when I ask 8^th graders, “What is heaven like”.

 I suppose I look at it a bit differently. It’s when everything just seems to be working the way it should, the body, the mind, and the spirit. And a true taste of earthly heaven is family. Just this past summer, my wife and I went camping with some of our children and grandchildren.  It was the first time in over twenty years and we went hard core; in a tent, on an air mattress, and in a sleeping bag.

 But, what a beautiful experience, to wake up to the smell of fresh coffee brewing on a camp fire. It doesn’t get any better than that. That is, until the aroma of hickory cured bacon fills the entire camp ground as it sizzles on that same open fire. I know not all will agree, but to me, but, “That moment was a taste of heaven”

And, I really believe God gives us those moments, blessings from heaven, to help us reflect on his generosity.  And, to thank him for all the wonderful gifts he provides. The little things along the way.

 Just this very day is another gift from our Lord. It is this very day that Jesus tells us. "You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect". Yes, every day is a gift to be used wisely, to prepare and to be thankful.

 God gives us all an allotted time on this earth, a definite time in which we are to achieve His divine plan for our souls.

 No, we don’t know when Jesus will come, so we live each day in hope of what we do not know. As St. Paul has said “if we hope for what we do not see we wait with endurance”.

 What will heaven be like? Who really knows? But I’ll bet it’s worth living a life God says we must in order to enter.

 We pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and use them to interrupt the will of God for us.  We must allow the saving grace of our Lord, and the many precious gifts he bestows on us, to become the treasures of our heart. We must be nourished through the sacraments and fed spiritually through Scripture.

 It is then, when the kingdom of God is within us and among us, God acts and our lives change and relationships are healed.

When we live each day with the Spirit of God as our guide, surrendering to Him, we will be prepared, and I believe, when our time comes, truly know that heaven is paradise.