Tag Archives: Heaven

‘A Two-Second Friendship’

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Can you have a sincere and meaningful friendship that only lasts two seconds? I believe so. And I believe I had one this past Friday.

My wife and I arrived at the emergency room at about 8am. For the first time, it was actually my wife in distress and not me. The symptoms led us to believe that Lucy was passing a kidney stone: sharp, severe, lower-back pain that had eventually expanded around to the lower belly.

Lucy underwent some tests, and she was given fluids and pain medication. As anyone who has suffered through a kidney stone will tell you, the pain is incredible.

The first dose of morphine didn’t even make a dent, so they went to a higher strength medication. Continue reading →

‘Time and Anxiety’

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I’ve always wondered what age I will be in heaven…

Well, I read something a little while back that gave me a clue.  A very young girl had been revived after being clinically dead for a short while.  When she awoke, she told her family that she was met by her (departed) grandmother and that they had spent some time together.  As she relayed the encounter to her family, there was one element that stood out.  The little girl spoke calmly, and as if nothing was strange, about the way her grandmother had looked.  It was as if her grandmother was a young girl, a young woman, and an older woman all at the same time – as if there was one face that showed ‘all’ of her grandmother in one glance.

Perhaps it’s a glimpse into how God sees us.  In this life, we have to go through one year before we get to see the next one – we know what has past, but do not know what is to come.  But God stands ‘outside of time’.  It’s as if he has a deck of cards and can flip all the moments of our life ‘face up’ on a table and view our entire life ‘in the present’.  He can see our entire life in one glance.  There is no future or past for God – it’s all right now.

Then, during this Sunday’s homily, something hit me when I heard the phrase ‘we have regrets about the past, and have anxieties and worries about the future’.  Something about that phrase just struck me. Continue reading →

A Peek at our Glorified Lives

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GregMerryGoRoundI just finished Pope Benedict’s book on Holy Week last night (early this morning actually), and his insights continue to amaze me.  Given that it’s Easter, I won’t relate the interesting points that relate to the time at the Cross, but instead I’ll leave you with another subtle thought about the Resurrection.

We know of Lazarus and others who were raised by Jesus (or the Apostles), and we tend to ‘lump together’ their resurrection with Christ’s Resurrection.  But this is not correct.  They were ‘risen’ in the same way a paramedic may restart someone’s heart today.  (Admittedly, however, Lazarus needed a ‘bit more’ than a defibrillator after spending days in the tomb.)  The point, though, is that they were brought back to a normal earthly life.  They spent some more time here on earth, and then died again naturally from some other cause.

Jesus, on the other hand, gives us a small glimpse as to our new life. Continue reading →