Category Archives: Heaven

Bubble-ology

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Wow...Emerald continues to be fascinated with bubbles, her longest running passion by far. From the time she could follow an image with her baby-eyes, she’s loved bubbles. At her request we blow bubbles together every time she visits my house and haven’t missed a single day.

In little Emerald’s mind, bubbles are ever-captivating, always new. Today she was mesmerized by the barely audible “tih” they made when hitting the ground, bending low to listen.

Wanting to learn more, she stopped her normal never-ending chatter so she could hear the bubbles land, batch after batch. Then she tried to mimic that tiny sound with her lips. I don’t believe she’ll ever tire of bubble-ology.

Last week, though, I was as much in awe as she was over yet another discovery. We were blowing bubbles out on the deck when a gentle breeze ushered them toward a nearby evergreen. But instead of popping as they usually did when hitting the sharp branches, they actually landed, sitting on the needles indefinitely! It was remarkable.

Evergreen bubbles..

I studied Emerald as she studied the bubbles, having wonder written all over her face. Yet I couldn’t help but think of how many more astounding things there are in this world for her still to discover. Though she has absorbed a great deal in her two short years, there’s far more ahead.

And then I suddenly realized the same is true of me. As God was looking down at the two of us that day, ages 2 and 69, our level of knowledge was nearly identical by his standards. Actually, both of us are still like newborns in our learning, which isn’t a criticism of us as much as a compliment to him. Though I’ve learned more than Emerald so far, none of it amounts to more than the quiet “tih” of a popping bubble compared to what both of us are going to know in life after death.

Scripture gives us a word picture for all this. When we adults were Emerald’s age, we absorbed life differently than we do now in later years. (1 Corinthians 13:11) Paul says this vast difference between a child’s learning and a grownup’s is a good picture of the enormous difference between what we know in this world and what we’ll know in the next.

In our human existence we can’t possibly take in all God has for us to discover. But in our “glorified state” after death, we will immediately know completely. That’s Scripture’s promise, and it’s a marvel to eagerly anticipate.

AmazingAs for our pine tree bubble-phenom, I’m sure scientists could offer an explanation: barometric pressure, humidity, dew point, or something else. But Emerald and I don’t have to go after the “why,” because God will give it to us eventually. In the mean time, all we have to do is enjoy our amazing bubbles.

“Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Labor and Delivery

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Most of my writing is done in the smallest room in our house. We lightheartedly call it “the library” because there are book shelves in there, but that’s a stretch.

Once in a while, though, I’ve labeled this room something else: our womb-room.

IMG_2645It’s where Nate’s hospital bed was set up during his short-lived struggle with cancer, and we kept it as quiet and safe as possible. He and I retreated there each evening, closing the small French doors behind us, to talk in low tones about important stuff.

As Nate’s need for sleep increased, he spent less time in his living room recliner and more on his bed in this room, drifting into sleep earlier each evening. As he slept, I still sat next to him, aware that each day was bringing us closer to death’s separation.

I often thought about what Nate’s doctor had told me privately: “Birth and death are both messy.” Both also require some hard labor.

A baby’s birth forces him from a dark, warm, safe environment to the bright lights, cold air, and sharp noises outside the womb. And from a baby’s perspective, life after birth isn’t all that safe, starting with his first scrubbing in the hospital nursery.

Dying has its parallels. Nate’s physical death was an exit from a womb, too, our small womb-room, with its peaceful, dimly-lit atmosphere. Just like a baby’s birth requires arduous labor accompanied by pain, Nate’s transition was laborious, too, a regimen of pain caused by disease.

These days the hospital bed is long gone, and as I sit and write in our little womb-room, I often think through the details of what went on here in the fall of 2009. I recall everything Nate went through, thankful to know that what we witnessed wasn’t as much a transition from life to death as a transition from life-with-limits to life-unlimited.

As physical birth brings great joy to a mother and father (and a smile to a baby’s face eventually), being born to eternal life is far more spectacular than that!

It means delivery from suffering of all kinds and a reunion with those we love who have preceded us there. It means the disappearance of any deficiencies and the start-up of abilities we can’t even imagine. And it means the end of all negative emotions, the uptick of all positive ones.

Best of all, though, it means talking and walking with Jesus Christ himself, along with the satisfaction of finally seeing what he looks like. It means watching his facial expressions, listening to his tone of voice, understanding his words, and feeling his touch.

I can’t imagine any labor and delivery with a better end-result than all that.

“If you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)

Catching a Vision

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Creative playWhen two-year-old Emerald and I play together, we enjoy a variety of simple pleasures: reading books, chasing bubbles, playing piano, drawing with markers. But most fun of all is watching her come up with her own creative “games.”

It was her idea to climb into an empty bathtub with her super-balls and stir them up till they fly around like hail in a hurricane. She does it every time she visits .

And she often asks me to reach for her half-dozen sippy-cups so she can stack them, match them with their appropriate lids, and arrange them in a circle like the numbers on a clock.

Vision.Though two-year-olds are total entertainment, maybe it’s more than that. Emerald may grow up to be a visionary, someone who dreams big and tries new things.

The other day she walked into the kitchen (after rummaging through my desk) with my magnifier glasses on her nose. After staring silently for the longest time, she finally just said, “Eyes.”

No doubt she meant, “My eyes can’t see right.” What she saw through them was blurred, but when I offered to take the glasses, she chose to keep them, walking through the house while gently turning her head this way and that to experiment with her new vision. She was fascinated.

VisionNot long ago I had a similar experience but with a non-visionary response. I found a pair of extreme magnifiers at a rummage sale and got a good laugh trying them on. But unlike Emerald’s desire to experience something new, I couldn’t wait to get them off. She pushed through positively; I gave up.

But of course eye-vision is one thing. Being a true visionary is something else. It means believing in an idea so completely that words like impossible, unlikely, or impractical aren’t roadblocks. Visionaries don’t hear even sharp criticism, because their drive to shoot for something fresh and new is so strong.

God knows all about being a visionary. Talk about a vision! His was to save corrupted mankind from sin, an impossible task from our perspective. But he saw through to the end result and ended up accomplishing exactly what he set out to do.

Now, as he offers salvation to each of us, we have to choose whether or not we’ll believe his vision about a sinless future in eternity with him. In a way, that calls for each of us to be a visionary.

We also have to be visionaries about the details. How will things go when we step out of this world and into the next? Since we don’t know for sure, we have to blend God’s word with trust in him. As we do, it’s best not to criticize or worry, which is what non-visionaries do. Instead we should simply “catch God’s vision” and expect that somehow everything is going to work out perfectly.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)