Monday, April 23, 2012

My Pure Heaven ~ BFF 186

 

BFF 186 - MY HEAVEN

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.

 

Darlene Cirinna

April 23, 2012

13 comments:

  1. This does sound heavenly and I love the line "my Lord, as I understand him."
    I am of the belief that God is exactly that, whatever you understand Him to be.
    One day I may right my own personal beliefs about God and spirituality. It doesn't really fit anything I have read elsewhere and yet is a combination of many things I have read. I only know that it feels right to me and has given me great peace and a very strong faith since I've been able to formulate it all in my heart and mind.

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    1. I would love to read about your faith. Faith that keeps someone strong and trying to live a good, clean life is good enough for me. I hate it when someone wants to argue semantics because what it comes down to is faith and love for one another. All the laws, rules and traditions are negligible....in my humble opinion. I love my Bible because it has so many lessons by example. When I was a teen, the Mother of a friend, who was also very involved in our church, told me that nothing would happen to me in life that I could not find the answer to between the covers of my Bible. That was mind boggling and gave me food for thought for years and years. I just couldn't comprehend... But, from this spectrum of my life, I can well see the truth of her words. I call my Bible my handbook for life. I feel like I learned way more by application than I would have if I had only memorized verses, then did as I pleased...if that makes any sense...

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  2. I like your idea of heaven. It really is an interesting question. In my own twisted mind I figured when my Dad died he would be getting jiggy with my mom after all that time apart. Is that crazy?? LOL He really missed her and wanted nothing more than to be reunited with her. I really hope he got his wish. I hope heaven is all you want it to be, it sure sounds nice Darlene.

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

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    1. LOL @ your Dad getting jiggy with your Mom in heaven.... hee hee.. You crack me up! But, seriously, I just realized that my Husband isn't in this pic. Hmmmm.... Freudian slip? hahaha

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  3. Darlene, I love this. My idea of heaven is quite like yours....I love all of nature and its sounds and wonder and books, writing and music are three of my favorite things, especially my Bible. I look forward to having a lot of family get togethers with all my wonderful friends and family that have went on to be with our Lord.

    I had a dream not to long ago about Heaven I was there and it was just like a big colorful wheel of beautiful places and endless things to choose from each moment 0r day as time mean't nothing there and you could not imagine getting bored there as each time you looked the scene would change and you could spend as much time at that place as you wanted and then choose another beautiful and wonderful thing to do. Everything was so beautiful. There was all kinds of, beautiful and colorful fruits and foods and you could stop there any time you wanted . There was music and beautiful gardens and things that my mind could not even perceive what they were as I had never before seen any thing to equal their excellence.

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    1. Your dream reminded me of a dream I had many years ago. My friend had just died, but I had not received the news yet. She had cancer. Anyway, I dreamed that she was healthy and vibrant and wearing a dress of many colors - colors like I have never seen in my life. She asked me to tell her husband something, which I never did because I was afraid he would think me crazy or maybe I was crazy. I found out the next day that my friend had died. All she asked that I tell him is that she didn't want him to grieve because she wasn't sick any more and she was very happy to be where she was. I have always regretted that I didn't deliver the message.

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  4. I have had many dreams that I had the revelation of things before the fact and I have shared some of them as testimonies, but some I do not mention to people for fear certain people will think I am crazy. Love Ya, Sh-Boola

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    1. I know what you mean. We should just keep some things to ourselves.

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  5. I see a lot of similarities from your heaven to mine, particularly the option to change it at our whim. You're heaven does seem much more poetic than mine though!

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  6. When it comes to heaven, I think God knows better than me about what would be perfect, although your heaven sounds wonderful. I don't know about after life, but I do know that the body is made of energy and energy can never die. I've thought about reincarnation and karma. Who knows? Interesting post.

    Catch My Words
    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com

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  7. My heaven would be a huge library with every book ever written, with an array of comfortable chairs and couches so I could sit wherever I felt most comfy any time, and eternity to just read. And all the books published on earth would appear there, too, so I would never run out of reading material. The ceiling would be open and light would always pour in. The air would be warm and fresh all the time. Because I love cities, I would want my heaven to be a shining, beautiful city (and I actually did dream once that it was) but also with a lot of green space and with a river and mountains nearby. And everyone I loved (including my dogs) would be there, too. My husband, of course, would share the library with me. But it may be possible that I wouldn't need the library at all because in the afterlife we will all know everything and contain all of history, poetry, and wisdom within our souls. We would know the mind of God.

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  8. Better late than never! Just got back from a trip to the Smokey Mountains so what you describe might well be my own. My version of Heaven is that it will be whatever we wish it to be. Every joy we have known in this life will be available again and again. Reunited with family gone before, cabins in the mountains and the ability to be any age as well. That to me is living forever. What a wonderful post to put me in a heavenly state of mind! Thank you!

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