We have all heard this “saying” often used as a shortcut to explain some item or form of beauty.
Usually a place, possibly a mountain retreat and the feeling that the surroundings bring to the senses by being high above all that is. Breathing air that is not so thick and heavy, complied with the natural ability to “see forever”, or at least for quite a long way.
Or again a tropical paradise with the warmth of uncountable grains of sand underfoot, that collogue of vibrant colors painted in the always present birds and foliage. Nearby the vast fathoms of the waters of time, beckoning thoughts of mysterious creatures and treasures held within. The inkling that one of those droplets, now caressing human skin, was the same one that centuries ago brushed against a chest full of Spanish Dubloons, can be enough to set the mind momentarily adrift, allowing a welcome escape from the riggers of everyday life.
Heaven on Earth is also utilized to verbalize extremely fine flavors of foods, or the chemical reaction we feel in bodily measure when we first encounter love with another human.
This would go on but, me thinks, you may have suffered enough, by making it this far reading my vain attempts at being artistic in the exuberance of such verbosity.
But come on folks can we really experience “Heaven on Earth”???
If we can, with the way we are “spiritually” AT THIS MOMENT, would we enjoy it???
In order to answer these two (seemingly harsh questions) me thinks we will have to first imagine what it will be like to be in Heaven. OK?
1). God is and will be there. Father – Son – Holy Ghost and The Oneness will be fully known.
2). God is and will be happy beyond all happy to have us there. Loving beyond all Love and will be interacting by reigning with LOVE.
3). Others (are) will be there. Women and Men from all the ages of time. Some we have known from our earthly journey, but most that we haven’t known, but will realize we do know them, because of our fully awakened common LOVE.
4). These Others (are) will be Happy beyond all happy and Loving beyond all known love, proclaiming a Sincerity beyond sincere while, Praising always, and Feasting and Interacting and Enjoying.
5). Angels of the Biblical Choirs (are) will be there and the Angels will be Praising and Singing and Interacting with the Others, and with love Smiling and Dancing.
6). Time will NOT seem to be standing still, nor going fast. Because there will be NO TIME. The moment of Love will be forever and forever will be the moment.
7). There (is) will be NO Sickness, NO vocabulary of death, NO takeout food, NO evil – sin -anger. ALL will be consumed with THEE burning fire of Love, but like the bush from which, our father of faith, Moses heard the Voice of God, The Fire will not consume the ALL.
IF the thought of such a gathering as mentioned above gives you a feeling that it is some place you would feel uncomfortable at or be out of place at, because you were hoping for more solitude than some gigantic birthday bash, don’t worry.
Surely The Triune God can put at your disposal, all the mountain tops and beaches and, the beauty of His Universe for your viewing pleasure.
ANY concept of Heaven is not hard to imagine using our mind. Although as earthlings, it is a hard thing to accept, within our hearts, that some day we will not “envision” a scene such as told of here, it will be a ga-zillion times better and WE WILL actually partake of, living within that scene, OR NOT.
And that NO ONE is exempt from the need to answer the invitation we have each been given to this party in heaven.
So now is the time and how do we RSVP this one???
Me thinks the best way to answer (or RSVP as the rich folks say) is to actually “practice” by making an attempt at living a “Heaven on Earth” as though we are already there.. Allowing the inability to accomplish such a lofty attempt to be compensated for by The One that has made the invitation.
If you please: The following is an attempt to equate the above “7” listed items, to “7” that we should actually be able to “practice” on. Thereby hoping to give “Heaven on Earth” a less insulting definition than some, undersized, overpriced, chunk of Chocolate brought to us by an egotistical chef.
1). “God is there”… Well God is Here too… The Holy Spirit is on earth: “In real time”. so what say we stop pretending He isn’t and do as He has asked and strike up a conversation with Him “real time”.
The Father is on earth, at least He can be heard in His Voice of the Old Testament and Seen through the Word of the Son, So lets take heed by reading the Bible and practice Their Oneness which we hope to someday become a full part of.
Jesus is on earth: “In Real”, within Tabernacles throughout the known world, so what say we stop pretending He isn’t. and do as He has told and receive Him as The Holy Gift He has made of Himself for us, and continues to do “So that each day from east to west a perfect offering will be made.”
Because these “offerings” are not “offered” vainly … they are “offered” so they will be accepted. (in other words it is “at least” a three way gift: Jesus offering Himself to us to become One with Him and We offering Him to The Father in that Oneness and The Holy Ghost offering us the means of attaining the Peace necessary to partake in such unity, while in this finite realm)
2). We can live happier and love ourselves and each other more than we did yesterday. This is a choice we make, many times each day, on a moment to moment basis.
Others can not make these choices for us, and we must NOT be making choices vainly.
For if we are making proper spiritual progress, we WILL be beckoning Gods aid in the quest of putting caring choices into action, in thought – word – deed. And we should not risk using His Name in Vain, by vainly asking Him for graces we have little or no intention of putting into action.
The Triune God insists we allow Him to Reign over us NOW and Forever … NOT “me reign now He reign later”. THAT dog don’t hunt and we all know what happens to dogs that don’t hunt …. You get rid of them….
By allowing God to reign in our lives NOW we will be prepared for that transition to The “Happy Hunting Ground”.
3). Again, Read The Bible .. and spiritually we will “get to know” a good number of persons that ARE already in Heaven and will have quite a number of “conversation starters” with quite a few of the new old friends that are waiting to welcome us when we leave here.
The reacquainting of those we physically HAD spent our earthly time with will be a hoot, so praying with them, NOW and then, can only cement that love you had with them here and heighten the Praise and Worship you will once again be involved in, with them, for all eternity.
4). Although we can not enjoy the “Feasts” of heaven while on earth, because of our diminished capacity brought on by our first earthly parents Adam and Eve.
We can and must, attempt a sincerity in belief, by cultivating a reverence, for the Feast that The New Adam (or as many translations of Scripture refer to Jesus as “the last Adam”) has prepared for us at each Eucharistic Opportunity.
We will then find it an easy step to sincerely make each earthly meal we consume, alone or with family or friends, an opportunity to give thanks to The Father. Showing a heartfelt appreciation for the bodily senses that enjoy earthly foods, and the graces of the energy we receive, allowing us to interact, and the healing power of the vitamins within each morsel.
5). We can stop pretending that Angels don’t exist. Every inch of the Bible tells of their workings.
We know that we are real (look in a mirror).. We Believe in The Reality of God. We have no trouble believing in the workings and influence of satan and his fallen angels.
Don’t tell the fallen angels to “go to hell from whence they came” … ASK a Good Angel to do it for you.. it is a Big Part of their Job …. Simply refuse to listen to or talk to fallen angels at all, over the years it could save a lot of precious time.
While we are at it, ask Angels to help Others, still walking this earth, that may be too busy to ask for themselves.. WE OWE THIS to our Angelic Friends, because they are a viable part of Gods design…. so if we desire to be honorable people…. let’s pay up…..
6). Spend some “time” thinking about “time” … God invented this commodity for our benefit, just as sure as Henry invented Fords…
Also like Fords (and all other makes), time will at some point no longer exist, and (from an earthly view point) eternity will have commenced, but in the overall reality, eternity will simply be continuing.
This concept is not so spooky when we consider (by checking on “the news”) that today “time” has stopped for tens of thousands of we humans and we are all living under that mortal law each day of our life.
So instead of being spooked by it, we can consider “today” as just another “moment in eternity”.
An eternity which we commit ourselves to spend with Our Creator.
This will only help in preparing us and will be the foremost method for us to RSVP via a lively active statement of : “YES I would LOVE to ATTEND YOUR FEAST”, “please send the chauffeur ASAP”. (As Soon As Possible)
7). When we have RSVPed we will no longer consider earthly illnesses as a curse. We can not help but feel a, deeper than before, compassion for the sufferings of others, and instead of self pity for our own trials, they can become pungent reminders of this finite existence.
We also accept it as a Calling of God, upon ourselves to aid all persons with illness in their time of need. It is through THIS that the fervor or ardor of Gods burning Love has been allowed to make such great strides when presenting Itself through such Little Humans as Mother Theresa of Calcutta, and numerous others we meet Him through in our daily lives, and we owe to them, whatever support we can offer.
Heaven on Earth? Can it be?
Given the circumstances we humans have chosen for ourselves it is feared that it can not be, and the idea of it may be simply another poetic misnomer. ALTHOUGH:
Given the abilities that Our Savior has Chosen to allow each to accept and hone to near Angelic Perfection, It certainly can be seen how, if we all pitch in, our earthly lives could resemble A Far Better Home and make the transition of leaving this earth and moving to Heaven a far less radical change to be dealt with.
For With God All Things Are Possible.