So often when talking about life, Christianity, and / or what happens after death, we talk about “going up to heaven” as if heaven is up there, out there, above the clouds.
Recently, in a New Testament Bible Study, we were talking about life after death. One of the members, Clark, who has been widowed for about 1 1/2 years, told of an event that happened last April. He said that all day had been a “normal day” until he was watching the news that evening. He realized, after seeing the date, that it was his wedding anniversary, to which he exclaimed, “It’s our anniversary today.” Plain as day, he said he heard his wife, Joan, say, “Why, yes, Sweetie. It’s our anniversary.” This, he noted, was just one of many times he really feels like his wife is still with him.
How can this be? Isn’t heaven up there, out there, above the clouds?
I think we have a false sense of heaven. The ancient world view was that the earth was flat. On top of this flat earth was a dome (imagine a basketball cut in half and set on top of a flat surface). Above that dome was water (see Genesis 1: 6-8) that sometimes opened to let water down to the earth (rain). In the dome were two great lights, the sun and moon (see Genesis 1:14-19). Above it all was heaven. Some believed God resided there only. Others believed God lived only in the tabernacle, or later, the temple. Either way, heaven was “up there, out there, above the clouds.” Today, though, we know that the world is not flat. We know there is not a “dome” above the earth. We know more about where the sun and moon is. Why do we still maintain that heaven is up there, out there, above the clouds?
I find it amazing, though, that in the same funeral services where we talk about our loved ones “going up to heaven,” we also say, that our loved ones have been reunited with God. After hearing Clark’s story, I remembered Bible passages such as:
- Psalm 139: 7 Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. (NRSV
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- Acts 17:28 For “In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.’ (NRSV
- Ephesians 4: 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (NRSV
If it is true that there is no place we can go where we can be beyond God’s presence; if it is true that it is in God that we live and move and have our being; if it is true that there is one God who is above all and through all and in all, couldn’t heaven be right here with us, all around us? If we really believe that we will be “united with God” in death, and God is here and everywhere, maybe our loved ones who have gone before are not up there, out there, above the clouds. Maybe they, like God, remain here with us in some way we cannot fully comprehend.
Maybe, as the 80s pop song goes: Ooh, heaven is a place on earth!
(Originally posted at http://theology-of-t-roy.blogspot.com/2006/12/up-in-heaven.html on December 6, 2006)
