How was Heaven?

With the new year fast approaching I thought it was a great time to do a little reflecting. Take a couple deep breaths, open your mind and your heart, and let’s play the what if game.

What if when you die, you stand in front of your maker and he asks, 

“How was Heaven?”

What will you say? Are you going to say, “what do you mean? Isn’t this the gate to heaven? 

Can you imagine him choking on his chai tea and laughing at you? 

Can you imagine if he looked stumped and asked you what made you think this is going to be heaven?

Would you say, “Well, I was waiting until I died to go to heaven.”

God – “Are you telling me that you were waiting to die in order to finally live? Is that what you’re trying to tell me? I’m really trying to understand what in the world you are trying to say.”

You – “Well, yes… I guess that’s what I mean.”

God – “My child… you just wasted the gift of heaven that I gave you. I sent you to heaven as a child. I had you learn how impossible life and all your gifts are to even exist. I had you feel with every sense of you. I created you in my image, meaning I gave you the power of the creator to create. I had you learn that your stay there was temporary. My hope was for you to enjoy Heaven, come back to work and for eternity dream of all the beautiful memories you created and experienced in heaven.”

What if this is how your first ten minutes after you died went?

As most of y’all already know, I wrote my children a book about this gift of life we were given. The very first title to the short story I wrote that 20 years later became the book was literally An Atom in Heaven. However, my children renamed it An Atom’s Journey before I published it. I translated the book into Spanish and called it LAS VACACIONES DE LA VIDA (Life’s Vacation). I only reiterate this to make you understand how truly I believe in the What if question above.

I wholeheartedly believe that we all have a deeply ingrained purpose sowed into our very soul from before birth. I’ve always made mine very generic and I give it away to everyone to adopt as their own. To leave this place better than I found it; my family, my friends, my job, my local gas station, etc. As time goes by, my purpose has become more specific. I fulfill my purpose by helping others realize the beautiful gift of life and all the gifts that it involves. I think life is so impossibly beautiful, I believe that the gifts from sight, love, free choice, ect. are so unique to us in this universe that I really think this is Heaven.

After bringing the question into the conversation yesterday, How was Heaven? My mother wrote it down and posted it in several places in her house. Here’s another What if question for you. What if you took that question as serious and as personal as she did? 

If you died today, how was your Heaven? How was your Heavenly experience? What did you create? Did you leave it all in the ring like a great boxer? Did you arrive in front of God’s feet crawling, exhausted, and with a full soul because you achieved so much in Heaven? 

These questions aren’t supposed to make you feel bad. I am just trying to raise awareness. For many, many years religious shiver when I claim to be god at times. Although I do it to make an impact, I do it to drive my point that we are all creators. I can point out to so many folks that have created a hell, a neutral place, a heaven, and even more that allow external circumstances to create their canvas. This life is a canvas and we’re the artist. God gave us the skill and gift of creating, but he also gave us the gift of free choice to create what we wish.

“Though we complain about life’s imperfections and difficulties, let’s be honest, God did a Heaven of a job, considering. We are all creators; we just need to tap into that divine place within ourselves that inspires us. When you know yourself and what you desire, you will be creative too”.

Bernie S. Siegel

Whether or not we create is not up to us. We are human, and creating is what we do. Every interaction, movement, and decision is creativity at work. What if this is actually Heaven? We have been in an eternal Now as far as we can remember and we’ll continue to be in an eternal Now until we’re not. What can you do today to realize your gift of Heaven? The good news is that you’re still alive, you still have time, it’s not too late. I refuse to disgrace the gift of Heaven my father has gifted me. Will you?

What if the first words from God you hear are, “How was Heaven?