Good morning Folks,
People ask me where I find my ideas to write about. This week’s idea comes from a funeral.
Solomon tells us you only really learn about life at a funeral. In fact, he wrote, if you have the chance to go to a wedding or a funeral, go to the funeral. Ecclesiastes 7. Imagine if Solomon was in charge of card design at Hallmark.
Happy Birthday – open the card – Go to a funeral.
Congratulations on your promotion – open the card – go to a funeral.
My guess his career wouldn’t last long.
Anyway, I attended the funeral and came away with a new idea. A slice of heaven.
To give you a little background on my Saturday excursion, the memorial service was held for the parents of a dear friend. The dad passed away last year, but Covid was roaring through the land, and nothing could be done. The mom passed away recently and so they held a service for both recently.
It was uplifting.
As you might expect, a lot of nice things were said about the couple. Several different people gave their insight to why these two were so blessed.
Then Michael spoke. He brought up the phrase A Slice of Heaven. These two people time and time again showed family and friends what Heaven will be like. They created an atmosphere of fun, welcoming and lots of food. There happened to be a few house remodeling projects along the way. It gave them a method to create a loving place.
What will heaven be like?
We, editorial we, tend to think of the pearly gates, streets of gold and wonder exactly what floor our condo will be that’s given to us.
That’s not the most important part of Heaven.
Back to Michael. He pointed out, there is a place – Heaven – and there is a presence – God.
And where God is – peace reigns.
Imagine seeing family and friends you haven’t been able to visit with in years. What will that be like?
What fun it will be for me to visit with my Aunt Girlie, who made the famous chocolate cake – half with nuts and half without. Why? I don’t like nuts.
To be able to visit with Dad, and Gramps, his dad. What’s that going to be like? Or to see my friend David who passed away 40 years ago. Or visit with characters in the Bible. I want to ask Samson just how good looking was Delilah? She tried to kill him twice and he still went back for more.
We too often tend to think of Heaven as the carrot at the end of a very long stick. We have different opinions about what Heaven will look like, or where it will be.
NT Wright thinks God is going to do a major remodel on Earth and this will be our heaven. Others claim that can’t be right. Personally, I don’t care if it’s on Jupiter. If God sets it up as Heaven, I want to be there.
All of that aside for the moment, if we look too far down the road, we miss the current joy we can share.
Where does this come from? Friends and family. Part of it is sitting around enjoying a great meal and conversation, and revisiting the recap from the memorial, the home remodels were important as well.
This next bit of wisdom comes from Jeff Arch. I attended one of his writing classes. He said when creating a story where you want two characters to fall in love – it doesn’t work to have each other say – let’s fall in love.
What does work is give them a project, or a goal to work towards – then the characters will fall in love.
Consider how Jesus built relationships with his apostles. He had the whole group out doing things. Would you feel closer with someone who just fed five thousand people if you were part of the group or just read about it?
Have you ever been on a cruise with friends? What happened the relationship after the cruise?
Facebook showed me a memory of my trip to Guatemala a few years ago when a big group went down to build houses. These were very, simple houses. One of the people commented on my post – we even had fun shoveling rocks.
Seven years later and she remembers the good time we had completing a project to help someone else.
Events tend to draw people together.
What’s the purpose of this week’s email?
Look for a slice of heaven today. If you don’t look, you won’t find it. Be aware of the blessings you have and share with others.
Two – find a project to work on.
Ephesians 2:10 tells us God has prepared a list of things for us to do – in advance. The list has been made. Now you should start knocking them off the list.
Why do this?
If God made us, then He would know how we function at our best. Maybe we should listen a little closer. Just a thought.
Enjoy the ride,
Frank Myer
Dallas, TX
FrankMyer.com
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
Steve
Luke 18:1
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