Heaven

Tonight during dinner, something prompted Doug and me to discuss the concept of Heaven.  What is it like?  Do we in fact get to reunite with our relatives?  How long do relatives "look down" upon their family?  Etc.  It sounds morbid, but it really was quite an interesting discussion.

It may have been this post by Tricia.  She lost her husband in late December and now has two small boys to raise.  Since they are so young, they don't grasp the fact that Daddy isn't coming back and that they can't just go visit Daddy in Heaven.

Doug was telling me that one of his college roommates (a Christian) doesn't think that when you die and ascend to Heaven that you meet your relatives.  His reasoning for this is that he believes when you go to Heaven, you are no longer who you once were.  You may look different and you may not remember who you are or who your family is.  Therefore, it would be impossible to meet up with relatives, since it would be like everyone has Alzheimer's or has had their mind erased like in "Men in Black".  He also doesn't believe that anyone "looks down" upon you.  This thought is basically based on the above thought that if you don't know who your family is, you can't "look down" upon anyone in particular.

Then Doug and I discussed if your deceased relatives do look upon you, how long do they do that for?  For example, even if you don't think about any prior relatives that have passed, let's assume a man dies.  He has a wife and children.  He "looks down" upon them.  Eventually his wife dies and she helps him "look down" upon their children.  Then the children have children, and their children have children and the cycle continues.  Does that original man ever have a break from "looking down" upon his family?  His great-great-great grandchildren, who may not come along for a century, are they still be "looked down" upon by this man?

I then suggested that perhaps you never meet your relatives in Heaven.  Especially right after someone has passed on, mourners tell the family "take solace in the fact that you'll one day be reunited with them".  Does anyone really ever know if you're reunited with your deceased family members?  When you find out, you're already dead, so you can't report back to those that are still living.  Perhaps we, as the living, believe that we'll see our family members again to help ease the pain of our loss.  The dead don't really care since they are dead.  They are no longer sad. 

No one really knows what Heaven looks like or is like.  Once again, when you find out how it really is, it's too late to take a snapshot to give to anyone on Earth.  We're all taught that the ground is made of clouds and there are people just milling around, free of pain, free of their Earthly life, but is that what it's really like?

I guess I won't have an answer to any of these questions until my time comes to leave this life.  I sincerely hope that I am not called home for many, many more years, but when I am, maybe I can confirm what I think Heaven is like...if I can remember what I thought it would be like, not that I can let anyone here know.