Now here’s a crazy idea: Heaven is going to be a customized place for each individual. God would become bored designing just one idyllic place and soon ache to find new ways to express creativity. Creating one set perfect Heaven is simply too stagnant for a Creator who took the time to create 350,000 types of beetles. God is too much in love with life to live within such limitations.
So, Heaven will be a customized place that fits the needs and interests of each of us. The generous God that I know would want to provide anything and everything that we desire, even if it conflicts with what somebody else might want. You might want to live in the city, and I might want to live in the country, and we could do so…while living next door to each other. Like parallel universes that overlap constantly, your heaven will be different than mine. The two will interact enough to create community and consistency, but not enough for conflict.
It sounds like a good storyline for a science fiction book.
But thinking about this made me smile. In truth, we have a world a bit like that. Isn’t this just describing a world that embraces cultural and social differences, but adding personal preferences to the list? Heaven finds a way to let cultural, social, personal and other points of diversity to exist side by side. Idealistic? Well, duh, yes it is….it’s heaven.
The idea of a personalized heaven really becomes fun when you start to daydream about what your personal heaven might look like. So with the hope of being ridiculous, impertinent, and theologically incorrect, here are some things that my heaven would include.
– Bumper cars! No worries about running into other cars. You just smile and laugh if you hit somebody else. In fact, you are considered a good driver by having more accidents.
– People still sin. But grace abounds, and that’s how God reminds us about unconditional love. A person who slips is immediately aware of it, immediately feels ashamed, and immediately seeks forgiveness. Thus our evil ways never build into something truly horrible, and our humility is constant.
– Perfect people become accountants and are widely considered boring. But then we catch ourselves and seek forgiveness for judgmental thinking.
– Celebrities exist but are not revered. Celebrity magazines and TV shows do not exist. Professional athletes play the game because they love it.
– Bookstores cease being trinket shops. Christian bookstores cease being Christian souvenir shops. In fact, they all go out of business and libraries become popular again.
– Judas is forgiven, but then sentenced to an eternity selling life insurance in heaven. He lives in constant frustration.
– All puppies and dogs over 20 lbs go to heaven. Small dogs and cats are in somebody else’s heaven.
– Everybody gets the opportunity to ask Adam & Eve, “What the hell were you thinking?”
– Laughter is contagious. In fact, whole groups of people find themselves laughing for days without ceasing. God considers it prayer.
– Sleep and rest are celebrated.
– Asking a deep theological question such as “why did you allow suffering?” will prompt God to smile and say we are like children asking the wrong questions. If we persist, God gives us the job of selling car insurance (see bumper cars above).
– Wine has infinite flavors, all good, and has the unique ability to inject only a set amount of alcohol into our bodies no matter how much we drink. Whether one glass or a whole bottle, our bodies absorb only enough alcohol to feel the relaxation; not enough to be drunk.
– Bankers and hedge fund managers are the only ones who ever suffer hangovers. It helps to remind them that there are consequences for excess.
– Twenty-four hour news stations are required to schedule 18-hours a day of live jazz music. Another 3-hours has a sporting event. Another hour has a real interview with a person of note by a talented journalist (I vote for Fareed Zakaria). Another hour has a debate in a classic debate format on a topic of pressing concern, and shouting or interrupting is not allowed. The remaining hour is spent on news.
– We can be whatever age we wish to be at any time. You can be a 2 or 3 year old when learning a new language, in your 20’s when you exercise, and in your 60’s when dining at Denny’s.
– Everybody is required to do two things as their public service: start and run a business (one year minimum), and teach (doesn’t matter what or where or to whom…but everybody must teach something). The results are seen within a decade as the ability to reason becomes commonplace.
– Hawaii becomes an independent nation. It becomes the Switzerland of the Pacific Rim, although with better beaches.
I’m sure there are more and I’ll share them from time to time.
So what does your heaven look like? Post your comments; I’d love to hear them!