Our children are grown now. They have families of their own. They all have creative vocations and are making a difference in ways that make Bill and me proud. If you would see these adults, you would see them as they are now, and that would be good.
But when I see them, I see more than just this present image of lovely young adults. I see the babies I held, the children who tumbled down our hillside into the piles of fall leaves or drifts of winter snow. I see their first piano recitals and hear the junior high rock band practicing in the basement. I see the poetry contests, the opening nights of community theater productions, the first recording projects. I see fireworks on the 4th of July, kids fishing in the creek or horseback riding at the 4-H fair.
I see an involved father creating a film project, a seasoned writer researching a musical she’s writing on the early circuit riders, an accomplished actress and authority on Shakespeare hosting a closing night party for the cast. I see a graduate, a bride, a new mother, a songwriter, a kid shooting hoops in the drive-way, a teen-ager on a first date…. I see all this when one of our grown children walks down the mill-stone walk under the grape arbor and through our kitchen door.
If you ask me to describe what heaven will be, I think it will be “all of it.” All the seasons, spring blossoms, summer fruit, fall harvest, winter rest—all going on simultaneously. It will be the big picture, the full content, the total vision.
It will be the ultimate expression of our gifts and abilities using everything we’ve ever learned and experienced with total freedom to create, think, enjoy, comprehend, assimilate, and celebrate. Our loved ones will be beautiful beyond anything here, so beautiful it will take our breath away. Yet they will be uniquely themselves in ways which this life could only limit.
All the perfect will be there—of foods, sounds, sights, tastes, insights, experiences—and none of the ugly, negative, frustrating, or limiting. Yet all will be infused with the possibility of something more with no sadness, no pain, no disappointment in ourselves or disillusionment with others. No lying, no deception, no violation. Everything and everyone will have dimension. Heaven will be “all of it.”
