The Sights of Paradise

"Absent from the body; present with the Lord."

     In the twinkling of an eye Jesus took me out of this world.  I cannot adequately describe the astonishment, the amazement, the sheer shock of this event.  One moment in suburban Chicago, the next moment in suburban Heaven.  One moment in the miserable humidity of a midwest city, the next moment in the most exquisite place "prepared for you, that where I am ye may be also."  One moment with a flesh-restricted mind, the next moment with a heaven-released mind whose speed of function was that of light!

     My initial gasp ("Dick, you're dead") was as quickly followed by an overwhelming sense of Peace--peace so complete that I instantly knew it was the promised gift of the Spirit from our Lord.  I had no memory about my life on earth at this time.  I was enjoying a heavenly "body"; I was totally me.  Aside from the complete absence of pain and the total presence of peace (neither of which I had ever known on earth), I looked like me, felt like me, reacted like me.  I was me.  I simply suddenly had shed the old body and was now living anew in this fantastic cloud-like body!

     I was the same size, the same shape, as the person I had seen in the mirror for years.  I was clothed in a translucent flowing gown, pure white, but transparent to my gaze.  In amazement I could see through my body and note the gorgeously white flowers behind and beneath me.  This seemed perfectly normal, yet thrillingly novel.

     All this time I was instinctively aware that the Lord of Lords was everywhere about this place, though I did not see Him.  Instantly the sense of timelessness made all hurry foolish, so I resumed my anatomy lesson, knowing that He would appear in His own time.  It all seemed so normal in this fantastic anteroom of Heaven.

     My feet were easy to see.  No bifocals needed.  I had instantly noted that my eyes were unlimited in range of vision; ten inches or ten miles--the focus was sharp and clear.  ("We shall mount up as eagles," said King David--he was alluding to their pinpoint eyesight perhaps!) There were no bones or vessels or organs.  No blood.  I noted the absence of genitals.  (How unneeded when in Heaven there is no marriage nor childbearing--His body of believers being already completed!)  The abdomen and chest were organless and transparent to my gaze, though translucent to my peripheral vision.  Again my mind which worked here in Heaven with electric-like speed answered my unspoken query: they are not needed; Jesus is the Life here.  He is the needed energy.  There was no air to breathe, no blood to pump, no food to digest nor eliminate.  This was not a carnal body of organs, mortal and temporary!

     My gaze riveted the exquisite valley in which I found myself.  Forests of symmetrical trees unlike anything on earth covered the foothills on each side.  I could see each branch and "leaf" - not a brown spot or dead leaf in the forest.  ("No death there" includes the vegetation!).  Each tree, tall and graceful, was a duplicate of the others; perfect, unblemished.  They resembled somewhat the tall arbor vitae cedars of North America, but I could not identify them.  The valley floor was gorgeous.  Stately grasses, each blade perfect and erect, were interspersed with ultra-white, four-petalled flowers on stems two feet tall, with a touch of gold at the centers.  Each was totally alike! (No two earthly flowers can be identical, nor is anything else since the Genesis curse.)

     Having been an amateur botanist as a schoolboy, I immediately decided to pick a bouquet.  To my amazement the unexpected happened.  My thought (to stoop and pick flowers) became the act!  Here in Paradise I discovered that there is no time lag between thought and act.  A word, spoken or thought, became fact! (I instantly realized how the heavens and earth were so quickly made from nothing that appeared: God had simply thought what He wanted, and there it was.  No sluggish man-invented committees were involved).

     I found my hand containing a bouquet of identical blossoms.  Their whiteness was exciting.  I almost had time to ask myself "why so white" when the answer was already given!  "On earth you saw only white light which combined the color spectrum of the sun.  Here we have the light of the SON!"  My excitement was too great to describe in words: of course, I thought He is the light of the world....in the new Heavens no sun or moon will be needed!  Then I sensed a strange new feel to the stems--no moisture!  I felt them carefully.  Delicately smooth, yet nothing like earthly stems with their cellular watery content.  Before I could ask, again I had the answer: earthly water is hydrogen and oxygen for temporary life support; here Jesus is the Living Water.  In His presence nothing dies.  No need for oxygen and hydrogen.  I instinctively looked behind me where I had been standing on dozens of blooms.  Not one was bent or bruised.  Then I watched my feet as I walked a few more steps upon the grass and flowers; they stood upright inside my feet and legs!  We simply passed through one another.  (My Lord had passed through closed doors and a heavy stone over the tomb centuries ago--with the same kind of body!)

     The illumination fascinated me--not a shadow anywhere.  There was no single light source as on earth.  I realized that everything seemed to produce its own light.  Again the answer coincided with my query: the Heavens declare the glory of God; know ye not that His is the Honor, and Glory, and POWER?  He is the Light of the world!

The Sounds of Paradise

     I stood overwhelmed with the sights of Paradise.  God had shown me incontroversial evidence of His planning and preparing a place just for me, as He had promised.  But He had more--it was music.

     All this "time" (since there is no sun, there actually was no time reference) I had been aware of the most beautiful, melodious, angelic background music that the ear of man can perceive.  I was now ready to concentrate on it.  It was truly a new song, such as St. John must have heard from Patmos.  Not instrumental, not vocal, not mathematical, not earthly.  It originated from no one point--neither from the sky nor the ground.  Just as was true of the light, the music emerged apparently from everything and every place.  It had no beat--was neither major or minor--and had no tempo. (In eternity, how could it have "time"?) No earthly adjectives describe its angelic quality..  Poets have said "music of the spheres."  God has said, "A new song will I give them."  I heard it--it had to be His composition--every note.  Hallelujah!  Music by Jesus.  No wonder the cherubims and seraphims and multitudes sing around His throne!

The Perfume of Paradise

     I was not prepared for the sweetest revelation of all: the all-pervading aroma of Heaven.  No one on earth, minister or Bible teacher, had mentioned to me this heady perfume!  Like the sight and the sounds, it was everywhere.  I bent again and smelled the flowers--yes it was there.  The grasses also.  The air was just the same.  A perfume so exotic, so refreshing, so superior, that it was fit only for a King!  Even the special formula given by Jehovah to his priests in the wilderness could not have matched this "sweet savor".  Earthly ingredients would fall short of perfection.  I simply stood quietly and let it bathe my being.

See other possible "peeks" at Heaven (and Hell) here