Do you ever wonder what Heaven will be like? I mean aside from being with God, do you ever think about what we will find ourselves surrounded by when we are there? Will we have our 5 senses, sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste? What about emotions? Will we have some sort of "heightened" sense of reality? Or will we have our senses as we know them, here on earth, at all? I think about those things a lot. Those of you who know me, know I am, to quote my daddy, "a girl of a million questions". I like to know what to expect, so Heaven is something I have always struggled with. Don't misunderstand me, I want to go there, it is just the unexpected that I have trouble with. It isn't like planning a trip to a far away land, a dot on a map, and "googling" the reviews of the people who have went ahead of you. I am a time oriented person, so I struggle with not having eternity all planned out ahead of time. I know, I know, crazy, but it is who I am, I can't deny it, can't hide it from God, all I can do is pray to find a way to work thru all the feelings here, and...know....truly know, that when the time comes, it will all be okay, I will leave all of this obsessiveness here, and none of this will matter there. Still.....I can't help but wonder.....
We have a wonderful Father, who knows the things we struggle with, and if we are obedient in turning those things over to Him, He will provide insights, provide teaching, provide ways to show us peace in our life lessons. This one to Him, isn't any different. He has been showing me this week into the importance of seeing "little glimpses" of Heaven, even while I am here. In fact, He moved me to tears with the delivery of part of this lesson. I have been "following" this precious young girl who has been struggling with cancer for some time on Facebook. I do not know her, nor her family, but yet, her mom has been writing a blog along the way, and is one of the most inspiring people I have ever came into contact with. The young lady has started her journey into eternity, the family has specifically asked that people no longer prayer for a miracle, she knows her time is drawing near, and instead they are praying that the transition from this world into the next will be peaceful. In her mother's updates this week, she shared that her daughter has already started to slip into eternity, she has started to "see" people, family members, that have already passed. She is staring to talk to them, and knows they are waiting to escort her to her new Home. At first, I wondered, how in the world her mother could share such a private thing with the rest of us, but then He spoke to me the lesson He is teaching through her. She is seeing "glimpses of Heaven", of things yet to come, and it occurred to me, why do we wait until that moment? Why do we have to be "one foot" away from stepping into the other side before we can see the glimpses of Heaven He gives us each and every day? He, being the loving Father, that He is, has traveled the road ahead of us, and leaves little things along the side of the path to remind us of that.
I have deliberately tried to open my eyes and my heart to see these things since reading her blog, and sure enough, they are there.....in the rose that I found after the "freeze" we had earlier this week, so delicate, but yet still alive........in the tiny little feather that my son and I found one morning on the way to school.......in the beautiful sunrise that I wake up to each day, slowly awaking the hills that I am blessed enough to call home.......Heaven is real, and it is alive, and it is here.....yes, the true Heaven is still just the other side of eternity, but it shows itself, it prepares us, if we are on careful guard to see.
I have been in Cades Cove today, enjoying some quite time, true quite time, taking in the sights and sounds and smells of nature. For those of you who do not know where I am talking about, it is a 11 mile loop, nestled into the base of the Smoky Mountains, and is home to undisturbed wildlife, such as bears and deer. It is an amazing place, one of my most cherished in fact, and I never visit without having a "God" moment. Today was no different. All of the above has been in the back of my thoughts, and as we drove thru, it really struck me just how much nature cries out to the Creator. I used to say that God must really have loved us, just look at the fall colors of Tennessee if you doubt that. Now, after today, I think I might have that wrong. I think it is creation that is crying out to Him, worshiping Him with all that it has. It presents itself to Him, full of vivid color and beauty, in reverence to Him, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. I was really overwhelmed today by that. I was reminded again of a lesson He has been walking out in me for awhile now, "I was blind, but now I see". That is something that is taking on so much of a different meaning to me now. There is so much to this world that points to the next, if only we take the time to see.....truly see.....
Today I am thankful for lessons that come even through pain, and through that, I am thankful for a lesson that came from a beautiful young lady, who, even in death, has more courage and insight that I can even hope to have. I am thankful for a Father who will continue to open my eyes, and more importantly, grant me visions, or glimpses of Him when I am open to "see" them. Most importantly, I am thankful that He is unendingly patient with me, even with my "million and one" questions.....onward to seeing those "Heavenly glimpses" in tomorrow's part of this journey....but for the grace of God go I.......
No comments:
Post a Comment