10th August

I’ve spent the day making coffee. For builders. Well at least they’ve started work today, only 24 hours after their promised start time and hopefully the supposed one day job will be finished tomorrow. But they’re a friendly lot who’ve been working quite hard all day so I’m certainly not complaining and maybe this time tomorrow my drive will look an awful lot tidier. They discovered my drains were blocked and that was not part of their job remit, so out came my old drain rods to sort it. I reckon the smell will be with me for a while yet!

And that has me thinking of Jane… I wonder what heaven smells like, rather different I’m quite sure. I believe that heaven is not just a spiritual concept but also a very real physical place and that Jane is right now exactly the same person she’s always been, only better or should I say perfect. I know it’s simply imagination but I still feel so very close to Jane, we were truly one with each other for so many years and it’s almost as if the separation caused by her death is no barrier to that unity. Don’t get me wrong, many in a similar situation talk of their lost ones still being with them, they can sense their presence; I don’t feel like that. I know Jane’s not communicating with me and I have no intention of communicating with her. I know she’s not here, she’s living a very full life in heaven and I’ve no idea if she even has a window into the world of her loved one’s left behind. But in some mysterious way I do feel that I can imagine her new life in paradise and I find that a comfort as I care about her enormously and we shared everything. One day we’ll play a serious catch-up for sure.

So day one in heaven I have to believe that we meet the Lord face to face. Maybe there’s no passage of time as we know it so that could last a while… or not. And there’ll be some sort of welcome party with quite a few recognisable faces to reconnect with, as well as the angels and perhaps some seraphim and cherubim and… We’ve been to too many friends’ funerals in recent times and then there’ll be any number of relatives to share time with. I wonder sometimes about those who purposely reject Christ in this life how many might change their minds right at the end. For sure there will be those who refuse his mercy even when faced with the most awful consequences. So I reckon we’re gonna get some real surprises with people we meet and hopefully we won’t even remember the others… cause that could be really sad.

Then after the introductions, what next? God obviously created us to work, but what might Jane actually be doing? What happens in heaven exactly? How does the place work? It may be just imagination but I do see Jane very contentedly living in a country cottage surrounded by animals. Tending to a beautiful flower filled garden. There’ll be a stream with wild more secluded animals and birds nearby waiting to be glimpsed by the patient observer… and she is. The place will be filled with colour. Especially purple… her favourite. There’ll be a very special art room. And a kitchen geared to a king sized medieval dining room, complete with minstrel gallery. She’s still getting settled in with some hand-made furniture made by a particularly famous carpenter, but soon she’ll start work on some living art-work using the flowers from her garden a bit like a giant well-dressing thing. There are unoccupied outbuildings waiting to be used by musicians, story-tellers, dancers…

Genesis 2:15 ‘The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.’ (NIV)