What is heaven?

          Have you ever wondered about heaven? I have – quite often. Especially since my mom died a few months ago. Is she with my dad and grandma? Has she been reunited with her parents? Can she see me and my siblings as we try to move along with our lives without her?

          Lately, I have been questioning my child-like image of heaven. You know – streets of gold, a mansion and a set of wings for everyone, sitting under a tree eating a bowl of ice cream with Jesus. And what about the “bad” people? Are they in hell, in everlasting torment with all the heavenly residents looking down at them and feeling sorry for them?

          There is a TV show I swore I would never get hooked on, but thanks to two of my sons, Supernatural is now on my Netflix playlist. I am just half-way through the first season, but my youngest son has started season 15 – the last season. After he watches an episode, he comes to tell me about how Lucifer’s son did this, and God got angry because someone broke his guitar. Extremely irreverent, but probably closer to the truth than anyone of any specific God-centered religion would like to imagine.

          The thing about heaven in Supernatural is that “heaven” isn’t one specific place where all the souls of the departed go and live together. “Heaven” is specific to each person. So, if my happy place is in a swing, knitting or crocheting for hours on end, that’s what my heaven will be like. If I wasn’t able to read the thousands of books on my bookshelves during my lifetime, God will give me the chance to get caught up in my death-time.

          My mom is probably growing a HUGE garden, with all types of vegetables and flowers. When she’s tired of digging in the dirt, she’ll get to sit and read or work on her own crafts. And my dad has a TV with every sport known to humankind playing 24/7 with his Cairn terrier, Bronco, asleep on his lap. Oh – and Dad has his favorite deck of cards by his side so that whenever Bronco hops down, my dad can play a few games of solitaire.

          I could get into that.

          But what about … the other place?

          Do the “bad” people, or those who aren’t “saved,” or the infidels, or the unenlightened go to hell? Do they go to their own version of what hell would be for them?
What if there isn’t a heaven or a hell. Instead, our afterlives, and how we spend them, are determined by how we lived our before-lives. That gets away from the whole “saved by grace” thing we Christians are depending on, but doesn’t it seem a little more logical that how we lived our lives influences how we “live” our deaths?

          Don’t get me wrong. I’m all in with the Jesus is Lord and my savior and my God thing. But what if I’m wrong? What if we’re all wrong? What if there aren’t 77 virgins waiting in the clouds, what if our enlightened souls don’t transcend into God-hood? What if we aren’t all getting on a ship with some extraterrestrials and flying off to a planet far, far away?

          I have always felt really conflicted about telling someone that, because of their lack of belief in the Christian God, that they would be destined to spend eternity in constant suffering. That’s what it says in the Bible, sure. But conflicting ideologies are in the Koran and other religious and sacred texts. Believers of those writings feel they are right. We can’t all be right, can we?

          Could it be that God, the Universe, the Greater Power, the Earth Energy (whatever you want to call that entity) is looking for us to just believe … in something? To have faith in an all-knowing power who created each of us for a reason. An all-powerful being who gave each of us the ability to choose for ourselves to follow it, and serve our fellow Earthlings. And, maybe, if we choose to disregard the teachings and callings of that power, our afterlives aren’t going to be all that fun?

          Maybe it all has something to do with what we really deserve. What we put out into the Universe is what comes back to us – good or bad in life AND death.

          What do you think your afterlife will be like? Do you have a belief in something bigger than you? Do you live a life of service to the people you share this planet with?

          My wish/prayer/hope for you is that you find something bigger than you to believe in, a purpose for your presence on Earth, the reason for which you were created, a life that gives you something to look forward to when you reach heaven!

Until next time,

Susie from Stix-N-Stonez