August 21, 2024
I'm standing on the threshold of an open door, at the top of a steep flight of steps that turns sharply down to the right. A very old man reaches the middle landing, but can't make it up the final set of steps before collapsing and tumbling back down the way he came. But soon another extremely old man appears, and nearly reaches the summit before he too goes tumbling down. It's distressing to witness, yet I somehow know they will make it all the way up sooner than later . . .

I am speaking to a woman, discussing what I would like to bake for the children. I remark that simple is best, referring to the dessert I bake for myself on earth. I don't think of this being a dream because I know it isn't even though I am somewhere else. . .

I follow the kind and helpful woman to a room so vast I can't perceive where it ends. The bright space is brimming with toddlers, 1 to 3 year old boys and girls who all appear totally happy. This doesn't surprise me for I know, simply because of where I am, that they are all receiving the best care possible on every level. I also somehow know that although one or both of their parents are still alive on Earth that every child in this room is an unwanted orphan. They will be the first to receive the healthy but delicious treats I intend to bake. . .

Having left the sunny chamber, I am walking across what I sense-know is only one of countless great foyers in a Mansion so immense it is measureless. To my right, I perceive staircases both ascending and descending, and to my left, I sense countless great chambers akin to the one I just left. Then suddenly, to my great joy, I see my late maternal grandfather. He appears to have just emerged from one of these great rooms, and is crossing this great hall in the direction of another chamber somewhere behind me and to my left. Our eyes meet in passing, and although we don't speak, a profound acknowledgment and deep contentment flows between us.

As I gently become aware of lying in bed, I don't so much feel I have woken up as that I simply returned to physical reality. Because as soon as I saw my late maternal grandfather, I knew I was in one of Heaven's Mansions. I might describe the floors as being made of the finest marbles, but there was nothing cold about them or the staircases, and there are simply no words for the measureless vastness of the place. To my right, I perceived what appeared to be long steep narrow flights of steps ascending and descending in various directions, while to my left there stretched a measureless corridor lined with great doors such as the one I had just walked out of.

Heaven is actually not in the least bit ethereal, and in this particular Mansion a  hopeful expectation transcended all possible concerns. I also sensed and can believe it intimately adjoins this world. I didn't need to be told to know all the babies and  young children in that immense chamber had not been wanted by one or both of their parents. And, apparently, there were no deceased loved ones here in Heaven related to them who had known or cared for them on Earth. I also hadn't needed to be told all the young souls in the chamber I entered were related, not by blood but by the fact they had all been deliberately aborted, and/or otherwise disposed of after being born.

As for what I intended to bake for some of these children, I don't believe it was merely a metaphorical treat but a real dessert they could enjoy just as on Earth. One of the most insidious and baseless myths about the Christian afterlife is that we don't possess glorified yet also ideally sensual bodies in the Intermediate Heaven, which is not our ultimate destination.

Before I actually read the New Testament and discovered everything Jesus Christ really said, I had never heard of the New Heaven and Earth, which will come into being after this corrupt mortal planet passes away. God always intended for us to live in Eden, a glorious yet fully physical paradise on Earth. And because of Jesus Christ, all who believe in the One True God Who is LOVE will indeed live in Paradise forever. 

So toss that proverbial harp out of the attic of your mind, and prepare to frolic even with lions. 

Animals have souls and spirits as we do only different, and were always meant to be our best friends. The ancient Egyptians knew this, and many pharaohs and noble men and women owned pet lions and cheetahs and other wild animals. When cared for by humans from birth and lovingly raised many, if not all wild animals return our love in spades, remaining happily faithful to us until the end. However, in the New Heaven and Earth it is death itself that will perish forever. 

Returning to the beginning of my visit to this particular Mansion and the two old men I saw eagerly trying to climb the steps but who crashed back down: I can only theorize they may be persons who were in the process of dying but were medically kept alive and/or revived longer than they had any desire to be. 

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” – John 14:2-6

“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

“Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

“And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” – Revelation 21:1-8

“How close does heaven have to be for us to reach out and touch our loved ones, or for our loved ones to reach out and touch us? We often think of heaven as an end point or a final stop on a journey. We look at life on Earth as if it begins and ends here, thinking that heaven somehow lies outside all that. I view it differently. During our lives here on earth, I don’t believe we’re walking toward heaven, I believe heaven walks alongside us. Heaven is much closer than we think.”

Appointments with Heaven: The True Story of a Country Doctor’s Healing Encounters with the Hereafter by Reggie Anderson

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