Experience living in a mountain story.

What is the best heaven?

Experience living in a mountain story.

As we get old, we have the tendency to complain about the way things are and talk about the good old times. I can’t avoid doing it. A whole nation can fall for a promise to make a country great again. The trick is to plan the future that we want and just do it, the best we can.

I have a friend who regularly mentions heaven and hell in conversations. It is most obvious that he is concerned a lot about life after death and where he will be. I know the person quite well and I am sure that he is not heading towards eternal damnation which we call hell. To me, hell is most likely where you may meet people like Hitler, Stalin, or Emperor Caligula. Mind you, I am not the judge. I asked him once what he perceived heaven to be, and he went into a dream-like state describing.

His heaven is most beautiful he said, probably like a beautiful garden with mountains and beaches, all like a perfect painting. In heaven, he said there were only beautiful people living in harmony and peace with each other. There are angels flying and your long-dead relatives and friends exist all in the prime of their lives. You don’t have to do anything unless you want to and you only wish for something and it is yours. The best part, he said, is the closeness to God. We can’t even imagine the joy that a human can derive from being with God. Being a Christian, my friend looks forward to meeting the Christ that he said he always loved.

I have another friend who is an Imam. That is a priest or a preacher in the Muslim faith. His paradise is not far off from the Christian or Jewish version, but he added another dimension. There are people there created simply for the pleasure of the person who spent his life being devoted and doing good things. This is where the Holy Qur’an describes virgin maidens devoted to the soul of the departed. They please and are fully devoted to it. Well, we raise animals for our uses so I guess that it’s possible. I respect all religious beliefs.

I investigated some eastern religions and was exposed to other theories. There are billions of people who believe that the souls of people are reincarnated and I can’t dispute it or any other religion. If people believe it, it may be true. 

I believe that a human soul is eternal but that it must live the best it can here and now creating heaven all around itself. You know the story, everything that belongs to the father belongs to me, and everything that belongs to me belongs to you through me. (John 16). I also believe that we are the stories we tell ourselves, so we must have the right story. I go through life living one day at the time thanking the Lord for my blessings and not fearing the future in this life or the next. It works for me.

In my quest for the best life possible, I think about stories that I would welcome and imagine what it would be like. Children do it all the time. Matt. 18:3. I will give you an example.

In my story, I would like to live in a town just like our towns here but where life would be like in “the good old days.” In my pretend place people live as they did in the fifties and there is no unemployment. The place is “self-contained” with all the amenities and most products provided by its own people. This would not render the use of modern technology useless, just enhance it. An experience unavailable in other places. A sign could greet visitors saying: Here the lowest price is NOT the law. The joy of life is.

There is a main street in the town full of little family-owned and operated businesses. There is a butcher shop, a shoemaker, a dressmaker, grocery and drug stores, movie theatre, books and newspaper store, bakery, deli, and coffee shops, the list is long. People are not all walled up in their homes but are walking, greeting each other and happily paying up a little extra to keep the town going. It could be a real place that looks and smells like Thomas Kinkade paintings which are so popular. We could even have a horse and buggy available for in-town transportation and as a tourist attraction. The buildings could all be decorated in fifties style and some folks may choose to wear our own fashion instead of modern wear. The local radio could play old tunes and families can enjoy a farmers' market in the park.

If the people of a town or towns chose to live in a modern-day Heritage park, we wouldn’t be constantly trying to make the place into a copy of the modern-day cities. We could have free wi-fi service and bank machines, but our choice would be to walk into a bank and say hello to the teller. In our tiny corner of the world, human contact would be valued more than time or money. Here we would have no crime and people could leave their homes and cars unlocked since no-one would even consider cheating their neighbours.

In a place where all possible services are provided by humans, where you don’t clean your own table at a restaurant and someone washes your windshield, all people would have employment and we wouldn’t even look at the fudged up statistics making up stories about low unemployment and government-created jobs.

This is my story of heaven and you don’t have to die to get there. If the story of the world is stressful and ugly, a community of people could rewrite it. If people like it, they are welcome to join in. If all they want is to try it out on a holiday, they could.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.