My hope of heaven
Concentrating at meetings is not always easy, particularly when there are lines like, “This has been an interesting conversation in the context of an ongoing conversation”.
“What?” I thought.
The words of an Advent prayer at the opening of the meeting were a sufficient springboard to contemplate other things. The Advent collect sets forth the hope of heaven in plain terms,
Almighty God,
Give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness,
and put upon us the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which thy Son Jesus Christ
came to visit us in great humility;
that in the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty
to judge both the quick and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the Holy Spirit, now and ever.
But what it doesn’t say is what the life immortal will include. What will heaven be like?
Charlotte Mew’s West Country dialect poem Old Shepherd’s Prayer has a vision of heaven unlike any other
Heavenly Master, I wud like to wake to they same green places
Where I be know’d for breakin’ dogs and follerin’ sheep.
And if I may not walk in th’ old ways and look on th’ old faces
I wud sooner sleep.
What should my heaven include?
If it is not drinking tea at the fireside with Davey and Mary; if it is not standing with Noel at a country church door; if it is not Tom waltzing around a hospital ward; if it not laughter on a Wednesday afternoon with Ros and Rosalie, then I would sooner sleep.
If it is not the little ones who lived a short life, and the little ones who had no chance of life, growing up healthy and well, then I would sooner sleep.
If it is not a new world where the crops grow, and the mosquitoes hold no fear, and AIDS no longer exists, and drought is unknown, and every woman and man are rewarded for their labours, then I would sooner sleep.
If the old shepherd is sleeping, then I think I will be joining him
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