This past week, my friend, Suzz posted a question on her Facebook page that gave me lots to think about in subsequent days. That question was this: "When you die and your soul ascends to Heaven, you can choose what your Heaven will be like. What would you choose?"
Well, my short answer was this:
“I would choose a log cabin on a mountain, surrounded by natural beauty and no sound that is not a nature sound. I don't want to hear horns honking, motors running, tires squealing...nothing but birds, wind rustling the leaves in the trees and the sounds of a bubbling stream. I would want to be surrounded by every pet I ever had and my Dad. That's all I would want...”
Since that day, I just can’t seem to get the topic off my mind. I’ve thought of many scenarios, people who are gone from my life, the pets I have loved and lost and more… Just exactly how would I want to spend eternity??? Well, the short answer is that I’m not sure… So, the first thing I would choose is the ability to change my heaven around – kind of like moving furniture around a room. You know…a different look from time to time…since it is apparent that eternity is a long time, I don’t want to be stuck with the first thing I dream of. I’m a woman. It’s my prerogative to change my mind.
So, at the point of my flesh death and assuming that I still want the log cabin on the mountain as my first celestial home, I would want it to reflect all the things I have loved. There will be light – lots of light from big, huge windows. There will be no curtains or blinds to hinder the light. My furniture will be simple and cozy, resembling billowing clouds with both white quilted and gauzy looking material. I have no need for knick knacks or most other worldly items for they are of the world and I will no longer be a citizen of the world. Except that I would like to have a photo album to look upon the faces I love. I would send that love into the world for the loved ones I have left behind. Those who have gone on before are in their own place in heaven, but I would hope to have family and fellowship gatherings from time to time. And, I need music and books, journal and pen, and, last but hardly least, my Bible… That is all I need from this world.
My cabin would have a loft where a big fluffy bed awaits my heavenly rest – devoid of worry, fear or remnants of discord. My bed would be one of those beds that seem to swallow one whole or get lost, at least, in the white, billowy, cloud like bedding. The roof over my bed will be one big skylight so that I can lie in bed and watch the stars until I drift off into a deep, restful sleep.
That is all I need in my cabin…one great room with one sofa, one overstuffed arm chair, one oak library table and one oak chair, the books, music and the player. I will not need a kitchen because I will receive my sustenance from those things that feed my spirit…music, literature, nature… My body will be new and celestial with no need for food or drink. I only hope I will look like my young self because I know that God created me and I want to be just so…but only the younger version. Allow me that one fantasy… *wink wink*
My cabin will be my solitude… My quiet place… Void of color or distractions and designed to nourish my spirit. Then, just a few steps outside the door of my small cabin, my heavenly world will be a burst of color and sounds, according to the seasons. The trees and flowers will be my reminders of the change of seasons. A bubbling creek runs down from the higher points of the mountain and the water will be cool and so clean that I can see clearly to the pebbles on the bottom and the small fish that swim about in the areas where the meandering creek finds to pool. My pets from a lifetime of love will be there, healthy and happy, frolicking around in play or laying lazily in a patch of sunlight, safe forever from all illness, pain or harm. The sounds of nature will be all around – bubbling creek, rustling leaves in the trees, bird song and other joyful sounds from creatures both great and small who live together in harmony and love. I would hope my heaven would have rain and snow. I know for a certainty that my Lord can provide without essentials as we know them, such as the essential rain for nature. But, rain is one of those things that nourish my spirit, so I would wish for rain often. And snow…Oh how I have missed the special silence and purity of the world after a heavy snow. I miss the crunch of the snow as I break that thin layer of ice with each step. There has been a void in my spirit where the peace of snow used to reside. I want that peace in my heaven.
Of all the people who have gone on before me, I loved no one more than I love my Dad. In my heaven, I would hope for my Dad to be close by, in his own choice of heavens of course, but a part of my eternity. There are others who live now who I would want to also have close by in heaven.
I need solitude and harmony in my life like I need the air I breathe. My hell would be a place of noise, distractions and dissention. I need nature and the animal kingdom more than I need people. My hell would be full of people. I hate city sounds…horns honking, tires squealing, sirens, trucks, motorcycles and any other motors staining under a heavy foot. My hell would be a city full of people, noise and close neighbors.
I realize that none of us among the living REALLY knows what happens after death. We know what we have been taught. Various religions have different beliefs and I am no where qualified to say who MIGHT BE right and who MIGHT BE wrong. Maybe nobody is right and everybody is wrong. We just have to wait for that last breath to find out what eternity holds for each of us. However, I do firmly believe that our eternity will be decided by how we lived our lives plus a measure of mercy and grace lovingly bestowed upon us by my Lord, as I understand Him.
