Double Vision

Have you heard the joke about the adherents of the various faith traditions reaching Heaven and being surprised to find that they are not the only ones there? We will all probably find people whom we might not have expected to see. This raises one potential drawback to living forever: we get to live with all these others who are living forever, too. If we haven't gotten along with them in life, how are we going to get along with them in death?

Eventually, we will all come face to face with those with whom we have been at odds. Nothing will be hidden because there are no barriers in Heaven. We must all be one, just as Jesus prayed that we be. That is the joy of Heaven: there is no separateness; there is complete unity.

If we are estranged or full of hatred or non acceptance or even if we are simply people who have harbored non-loving thoughts about others, these attitudes will have to change in order for Heaven to be Heaven - the abode of Love. Non-lovers will be changed by the grace of God, but God won't run roughshod over our will. The opportunity for reconciliation will be ours to choose or not.

I don't think this will be a private experience. Our non-loving relationships will have to change and that takes two. What we thought about the individuals whose lives interacted with ours will be evident to them and to us and must be healed. I sometimes think how mortified I will be when people know what I might have thought about their behavior during my life.  What is it that God will show us so that we become capable of embracing the loving response? What explanation, excuse or insight will overwhelm our former attitude of judgment?

We can pray for God's grace to be there then or we can choose to ask for the grace to change our perceptions now. This calls for double vision: to see the people in our life as we know them now and to also see the image of facing them at some future point when what we have said and done and thought will be evident to us both. I think I'd rather ask for God's grace to alter my vision now than wait for eternity. If we all did, we might bring Heaven a lot closer a whole lot faster.