I used to hide under the table a lot during catechism classes, so I didn’t catch much of what the teacher said, but I do remember her saying that in heaven we will get whatever we want. At the time, all I wanted in the world was a PlayStation. I fully expected to get one for Christmas, but I figured that if the Grim Reaper happened to beat out Santa Clause, it was still win-win for me.
I suppose that sometimes we carry childish ideas about spirituality into adulthood. Up until recently, I still imagined heaven as the place where all of my deepest yearnings are fulfilled. The trouble is that if things really work that way, heaven is just a place to satisfy my vanity. It’s full of PlayStations and expensive guitars and pretty mountains. It’s full of things I think I want now, but maybe I don’t really know what I want. Maybe the best thing about heaven is not that I get what I want. Maybe the best thing about heaven is that what I want will finally be what’s actually good.
Sometimes I try to read this book called “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas A Kempis. I can only read a few paragraphs at a time. A few days ago I read this:
“..thou shalt always have thy will in heaven…There thy will, ever at one with Mine, shall desire nothing outward, nothing for itself.”
So I guess we do get what we want. And maybe the closer we get to wanting the right things here and now, the closer we are to bringing heaven to earth the way Jesus talks about in Matthew 6. PlayStation wasn’t really that great anyway. Except for “NHL 99″ – I ran a fantastic franchise for a 10-year-old.
This post appeared previously on Chris Low’s blog. Chris is a past speaker at camp and is a singer/songwriter.
