tears in heaven

You get to a point where you realize you know more people on the other side than you do here… which got me thinking… what is it like ‘over there’. What are WE ‘like’ there? I mean like literally. 

End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path… One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass… And then you see it. White shores… and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.- J. R. R. Tolkien through the character Gandalf the White, who has returned from the dead

I, like many of you, have been there when someone passes. In an instant, they are not there. The light goes out, the life is gone. What a second before was John is now a shell. (it’s the same when other poor creatures die) That beloved person was only represented by a vessel that we could see. The one we knew and loved is not. What are they like now? Where did they go? What is it like there?

There are people who say they’ve died and come back. Most of them describe a white tunnel, a bright light, and loved ones waiting. All in all, that really isn’t a whole lot of information. I suspect that those who die and come back just don’t have the time to thoroughly check out the place before being returned. There are more vivid descriptions out there, but unlike the tunnel light and loved ones- these have no consensus and vary wildly.

There are numerous vivid descriptions of Hell. There are both cryptic and detailed descriptions of various aspects of Heaven (however overall I would have to say most of the details are lacking). But the place we all go when we die before the Judgement- other than tunnel light and loved ones- we don’t got much.

I mean, there’s got to be billions up there by now. How do you find anyone? Do they have those “YOU ARE HERE’ signs? Is there a directory? And, I can promise you, my neighbor will want to know “do they have beer up here? please say yes and bring me two”

What are WE like? Obviously we left this lump of organic matter which is mostly water behind. So now we are spirit. Like ghost I suppose. How do we know each other? These bodies are the products of genes and traits and race and ethnicity. People have deformities and imperfections. And, as Eric Clapton considered in his beautiful song Tears in Heaven which was written when his four year old son Conor died when he fell out of a apartment window in 1992:

Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on
‘Cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven

Would you hold my hand
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand
If I saw you in heaven?
I’ll find my way through night and day
‘Cause I know I just can’t stay here in heaven

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees
Time can break your heart, have you begging please, begging please

Beyond the door there’s peace I’m sure
And I know there’ll be no more tears in heaven

Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on
‘Cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven

Songwriters: Eric Patrick Clapton / Will Jennings

Tears in Heaven lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

How do we know each other up there? What is the same?

I know a lot of people don’t believe this, but I don’t think people come back and visit, or ‘haunt’ places. You hear about the “lady of the lake” and the “horseman of the lane” and this and that but I don’t understand why a ghost would be fully-clothed in the clothes that they had while in the body? Why are certain spirits allowed to hang around while the vast majority are not? Whatever these energies are, I don’t think they are departed people stuck in limbo. I believe when you die, you go through the tunnel to the light, and it really isn’t a process you have any say in. You pass from this realm to the next, just as you did when you got here. It requires no decision or takes any action from you.  King Solomon expressed a similar sentiment:

Ecclesiastes 3:22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

I have read a lot of stories and books and articles and testimonials through the years. Theories and opinions. Visions and epiphanies. Religions heralding speculations. And the one thing I know for sure, it doesn’t end here, and no one knows for sure what comes next. Not is it real, but what is it like? A place with no more tears and no more pain.

For now, I like the way Gandalf said it:

The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass… And then you see it. White shores… and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Well, that isn’t so bad.

No. No it isn’t.

First published March 5, 2018 as “the other side- tears in heaven”