My Heaven I

One of my favorite songs by Margaret Becker is My Heaven- but that's not what this blog is about.

Actually, as a teenager, in addition to normal teenage facial acne, I had rather severe acne all over my upper back. It was often painful, and I still have some scars on my back from it all to this day. Anyway, I remember going through a certain mental excercise every night while lying in bed that always made me feel better. I would imagine myself suspended in a river of the purest, clearest water, and somehow it was breathable, like amniotic fluid, so that one could stay submerged indefinitely. However, this "water" was special far beyond that, for it had certain nanotechnological curative properities such that as it came into contact with your body, it would cleanse and renew you, cell by cell, molecule by molecule. And I would imagine each pore of my skin being gently cleared, and healed, and all the nasty substances just floating away from me in the current. Then, as each skin cell was healed and renewed, it would have this same effect on all the adjacent cells, so that the effect would spread throughout the body. I even imagined that it would turn my gray hairs back to their original color. Sort of like the fountain of youth, in river form.

Eventually, after a few years of this, my parents took me to a dermatologist and I got the Accutane treatment, which pretty much cured me. So, I didn't have to deal with that anymore :D But, from time to time, when I'd have an occasional pimple, or simply a cold or some other irritation, I'd go through this mental exercise again. As I began to think about this more "objectively," I finally began to think of calling this "The River of Life," (as in Rev 22:1). And why shouldn't it be like that? Perhaps death, for those who go to heaven, could be like passing through just such a "River of Life," healing and making young not only your body, but your whole mind and soul as well.

Later, when my family started to move towards being Messianic, we would sometimes study the Jewish context of certain words and ideas. Once we were studying baptism. The Hebrew term for this is mikveh, and it was used by Jews for all sorts of ritual cleansing. The main point in a mikveh setup is to keep the water running, and not stagnant. In fact, this is the very word Jesus uses, which is usually translated "living water." The traditional Christian interpretation of baptism is that you die to the flesh, and are reborn in the spirit. So again, I ask, why shouldn't death be like that?

More recently, I have begun to think of heaven as a place of perfection. To quote an earlier blog:

I think that my reasons [for believing in God/heaven] now are something like perfectionism. I want perfection, and it isn't here. The only possible way I think perfection could ever exist is if there is a God [...] maybe my desire for perfection is the proof. If I have never seen perfection (and I don't think I ever have - surely I would remember if I had), and if I myself am not perfect (I am not), then how could I ever have come to know perfection enough to realize it's absence, and to desire it?

After reading Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy, I wrote another blog, which developed another possible view of heaven, or more specifically what "the kingdom of heaven" or "heaven on Earth" might be like:

the coolest part out of all of this, is the kind of picture that I come away with of what real eternal life might be like. The book, as I said above, presents the idea that He does want us to improve and strengthen our own kingdoms. But, we can only do this with His power. Willard makes an analogy with physical power. With the strength of your own body, you can accomplish a certain amount. With mechanical power, even more. With electrical power, even more. With nuclear power, almost more than you can imagine (in fact, it's so much power, that we can't really use it because it's so hard for us to control). Likewise, joining the "Kingdom of Heaven," is kind of like someone living in a rural area getting hooked up to the electrical grid for the first time. The main difference is that God's power is somewhat directional - there is plenty of room for creativity, but you can't "use God" to do evil. I can only think of this other power as will power. I think that being created in the image of God basically means that we are meant to basically be able to do whatever we can imagine, and whatever we desire. Like Phoenix/Dr. Jean Grey from X-men! But think about what happens in that movie, her power is directly linked to her will, and her emotions, and even the slightest lack of self-control on her part has disastrous consequences. She kills the man she loves and who loves her, she kills a man who is trying to help her, she almost kills another man who loves her, and in the end she kills herself. Her power is beautiful and terrible! I think we are all meant to be like that - but God can't give us the power to do what we want to do, because we haven't learned self-control yet. As we begin to learn self-control, and patience for His timing (impatience isn't self-control), He will be able to give us more of His power, and then we will be able to do more of the things we want to do. Like Phoenix. How cool is that?!?!?!