February 3, 2003
CYBERCOLUMN:
The kingdom of heaven
___By John Duncan
___I am sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering heaven. John in the Revelation heard a loud, mega, voice from heaven. He saw a white horse when he peeked into heaven. He even described the New Jerusalem, a delightfully dazzling city of splendor with precious stones and swinging gates and walls and numbers like 12 posted and a Lamb in its midst.
___Jesus spoke fondly of the kingdom of heaven. He likened it to the grain of a mustard seed that grows and to leaven that quietly works its magic deep beneath the surface of a loaf of bread. Jesus referred to heaven as a treasure like one hidden in a field or like one marvelously treasured pearl of no small sum in price. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven was like a net that gathered fish which were later divided. Jesus had a way of painting a picture of heaven with the common stuff of life.
___ Jesus' most striking comment about heaven involved talk of angels. He told of "angels always beholding the face of my Father who is in heaven." I wonder what heaven looks like? At least we know where angels look.
JOHN DUNCAN
___Supposedly Billy Graham once said there would be golf in heaven. He noted that in heaven we would enjoy all the pleasures we enjoy on earth. I am not so sure. C.S. Lewis remarked, "Joy is the serious business of heaven." Joy in heaven, that I can see. The way I play golf, I would not envision golf as joy in heaven nor the joy of golf. It is, of course, just a personal opinion, with all apologies to Billy Graham.
___The reclusive poet Emily Dickinson contrasted an atom that fell and the heavens that held. She wondered as a child, "Why heaven did not break away-And tumble-Blue-on me." Like Chicken Little, she feared the blue heavens like a sky might fall on her head. Do you think of heaven as a colorful place, say, hues of blue?
___The enigmatic football player Pat Toomay, a once upon a time Dallas Cowboy defensive end from the ghost of Super Bowls past, told of the time he went to play for the Oakland Raiders and to his shock and surprise his new coach gave him a day off. He thought, "This never occurred to any coach I ever played for. … I'd finally found football heaven." Trust me, a tee time on the golf course in heaven maybe, but football? All I can think of is Pat Toomay sensed that heaven was a wondrous surprise. Truly, heaven must be full of surprise, like a day off from work.
___Speaking of surprise, little 4-year-old Jordan stayed at our house the other day. My wife completed chemotherapy recently. She sat in a recliner with no wig and a bald head. "Jordan," my wife said, "whereís my hair?" Startled as he studied a bald-headed woman, he shouted four words, child-like words with pizzazz, "It went to heaven!"
___ Hallelujah! There will be hair in heaven. After all, Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a child: "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of heaven as a child will by no means enter into it." Grab your hair and hang on!
___Not long ago, Pearlie Elkins entered into heaven. The octogenarian, sweet with pursed lips, called me and another church staff member to her house on Christmas morning. Throat cancer ravaged her body so that she coughed and talked through a small round tube stuck in her throat. She smiled a sweet smile and unfolded the drama. She whispered, "A big bird came with white wings and hovered over me. It was beautiful!" Did she look into heaven? Was she seeing precious stones and gates with locks and keys and walls like China's Great Wall? Or did heaven illumine her eyes with tiny mustard seeds, stringed golden pearls, fishing nets, golf balls or shades of endless blue tumbling like snow flakes on a winter's day? Or did she see a white horse with a rider, maybe a white winged horse that hovers in moments before God's final calling? Did she see angels whose faces with eyes riveted turned toward the Lamb?
___ I left Pearlie's house that Christmas with thoughts of wonder. What does heaven look like? Several days later Pearlie begged Jason, her nurse, to come by her side as she sat in her chair. "I am going to bed now ,and I am not going to get up. I am being called." She slowly made way to her bed, lay there for a few days, sucked on crushed ice, grabbed hands of visitors, smiled sweetly and never got up. The final call came. She slipped silently into heaven's pearly gates, welcomed by angels whose white wings fanned and whose faces shone toward the Lamb.
___ Heaven staggers my imagination. Staggered himself, C.S. Lewis whispered of heaven, "The apostles themselves, who set foot on the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark of Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven, and you will get Earth 'thrown in': Aim at Earth, and you will get neither."
___That C.S. Lewis! Ah, that Pearlie! I am working on not being ineffective in this world. I am aiming at heaven. I look forward to the day I see Pearlie and a host of others, including my Grandmother Ruth, in heaven. I cannot wait to see hair—everywhere! I cannot wait to see the Lamb, "whose head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire" (Revelation 1:14). Or in the words of the contemporary band Mercy Me, speaking of heaven, "I can only imagine."
___John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines.
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