Passing the time. Part 3

Passing the time

Part 3: Eternal life in heaven

Let’s consider now the idea of eternal life in heaven. It is extremely difficult to imagine what this could actually be like if it exists as a literal reality. I have, however, spent nearly all my life as a firm believer in the life of heaven and I certainly don’t want to give up the idea. I have no problem in conceiving it as a wonderful reality – the concept is clear and readily understood in principle, though there are difficulties when we try to consider what it would actually be like to be there.

One of my images of our entry to heaven is of our life like a film in a cinema: as the film ends, illustrating the end of our lives, with all the emotion of the story of the film climaxing in its final moments, as, perhaps, the hero and heroine embrace, their trials behind them, ready to “live happily ever after”, at that moment the film freezes. The whole film has been movement, portraying the story of the characters, but now, as it ends, we go to freeze frame. In the background, the music is still swelling to express the fullness of the emotion, but we can go no further. In our minds, we understand that the story goes on, and is good, but we can go no further as participants or companions of the story.

This illustration is fair, in that it expresses some key beliefs about the reality and goodness of life in heaven, but accepts that we just cannot penetrate any further in this life to conceive what it might be like.

An alternative illustration is taken from the Narnia books. When the characters get to heaven it is visualised as a physical paradise, say as walking in the breath-taking beauty of mountain scenery, but the concept is: “Onwards and upwards”. The idea is that, as you race through wildflower meadows like children released into a holiday idyll, surrounded by utterly stunning snow-capped mountains, you are astounded by the views opening up to you, but as you rise to the crest of the next hill, you see that the next view is just as, or even more, breath-taking. And the key concept of heaven here is that you can go “onwards and upwards” forever; you will never reach the highest crest and come to the end of the unfolding of thrilling experiences. But this does not imply that you have not arrived; that you have not yet experienced all the fullness that it is possible to experience. For each vista is utterly fulfilling, and the next one just as much so.

In our physical existence now, we can become jaded. Even the most magical experiences cannot hold our attention for long. Even if we are not interrupted by someone, we get cold, or tired, or hungry, or need to go to the loo, or we just can’t take in and go on experiencing this degree of beauty and joy anymore. But if it really was possible to keep going “onwards and upwards” forever, and if we were freed from the limitations of a physical body, or if our faculties were more finely and robustly tuned, why should we not retain the experience of complete fullness that never ends?