Thoughts About Heaven…

My littlest one has been asking questions a lot lately about heaven.  He is curious and thoughtful about what happens after we die, and as we have told him that we will go to heaven he is curious and thoughtful about that too. 

Every day he has a new thought or question about heaven, and his own thoughts have inspired me to think more about what I believe and how it can make sense in the world I see around me…

Everything I see around me in nature makes me wonder at the complex beauty of  it all.  Each leaf and petal is more complex in design and execution than any of my most profound thoughts…

And yet it is through the honest and unaffected questions of a preschooler that the most profound ideas find their way:

“Is heaven part of earth?

Is heaven all around us?

Are we standing in heaven right now?

When we’re both in heaven, how will we find each other?”

This last question makes me cry even now.  I am moved by the great big loving heart my little one has, and his worry that we might be separated from each other in a place too great to comprehend…

“Does heaven ever end?

Why is heaven forever?  How long is that? Why is it so long?  

Why isn’t this life as long as that?

How do people go to heaven?  How long will it take us to get there?

 

Will we need to have wings?  Will our things be with us?  How will we live without anything?

Once you’re in heaven can you come back to earth?”

 

His questions are so human.  They remind me that there is more in life that I don’t know than what I do, and that maybe, like him, I should make the most of every moment as it happens.  How long is life?  I can’t say.  But this moment we have together today is a tiny piece of heaven for me… and I plan to hold onto it with all my heart.