Further Up and Further In

From Debra Rienstra

I was talking to a writer friend the other day who told me she had just finished a manuscript about a lovely older gentleman who, in the course of treatment for a rare medical condition, had a vivid, detailed near-death experience. My friend’s job was to listen to this fellow tell his story and write it up as a book. The manuscript is now in production, and the gentleman—of whom my friend grew very fond—has since gone permanently to his heavenly home.

Naturally hearing about such experiences make us wonder what heaven might really be like. Of course there are cultural commonplaces featuring harps, clouds, white-robed angels, and St. Peter at the pearly gates. The Bible offers a few glimpses: a shining city, a fruit-bearing tree, white-robed martyrs—a whole different thing from angels—and a sort of large lamb on a throne. Not a lot to go on, really, so I suspect we all fill in some personal details when we contemplate the great beyond. 

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