Hopes for Heaven

In "The Matrix," the computers created a paradise for people. But the people knew something was wrong. And many killed themselves, unable to reconcile the incongruity of their sense of inner wrongness with the rightness around them. I hear an insatiable crying out to be whole and holy.

We all cry for wholeness and holiness.

When people say heaven is going to be boring - oh, my - how deceiving such a picture can be: harps and separate clouds, and white robes. Please.

I would bet that heaven will have work: good, difficult, satisfying work. We will work together, never lonely no matter where we go. If we walk somewhere without a friend by our side, the trees themselves will be our companions, so intimate will be our connection to the world around us. We will have no fear, and no more darkness, for we know that the Lamb on the throne will be the light of the city. And when we have been tired out by our work, we will lie at the foot of pine trees, on beds of fragrant pine-needles, and take our fill of satisfying rest. And wake up again, as in the arms of a lover, attentive and quiet. And the day begins.

We will live in knowing (and every moment, knowing) where we belong and whose we are. And we will climb high mountains where the air does not thin. And we will dive to great depths where the pressure will not damage our brains, which will finally think clearly, and our eyes will finally see fully.

The difference - and it is too great not to be spoken! - is that our sense of inner wrongness: our shame, greed, pride, fear, moodiness, lust, will all be cleaned away. In its place will be a song of love to the One who gave everything he had. A song of love to the one who was shamed for love.