Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna

Day 32 – Thursday after 5th Sunday of Lent 

To Read:

Anna was certain that heaven was, certain that angels and cherubs and things like that were real and she knew more or less what they were like, at least she knew what they were not like.

For one thing, they weren’t like those pictures of angels with nice feathery wings.  It wasn’t the wings that bothered her one bit, it was the fact that they looked like people that bothered Anna.  The possibility that an angel could, let alone would want to, blow a trumpet filled her with the deepest dismay.  The idea that, come the resurrection day, Anna would still have the same number of legs, still have eyes and ears, still be generally constructed after the same present pattern, was to her an idea too monstrous to contemplate.  Why was it that grown-ups insisted on talking about where heaven was?  The whole question of where heaven was was neither here nor there, it was immaterial, it was nonsense.  And why, oh why, were angels and cherubs and things like that, and goodness me, even Mister God himself, represented as human people?   Oh no, the question of where heaven was was one of those non-questions, it had nowhere to land, and therefore was no question fit to be asked.

As Anna saw it, the question of heaven was not concerned with ‘where’ but it was concerned with the perfection of the senses.  Language was hard put to it when trying to describe or explain the concept of heaven, but then language depended upon the senses and it therefore followed that the grasp of heaven was also dependent on the senses.  These pictures, these statues, these stories about angels, simply shouted aloud the fact that the perpetrators of these monstrosities had no idea what they were on about.  They merely showed quite clearly that angels and suchlike were simply men and women with wings on.  They were burdened with the same kind of senses as we were and as such were not fit creatures for heaven.  No, whatever the description of heaven was, and that was really most unimportant, it didn’t describe a place but the inhabitants.  Any place could be heaven where the senses were perfect.

From the Scriptures:

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now;  what we will be has not yet been revealed.  What we do know is this:  when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. ³ And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.     (1 John 3v1-3)

To Reflect:

There is a gentle balance in Anna’s faith.  On the one hand there is a diamond hard insistence on the presence of Mister God in her middle and the middle of all those around her.  On the other hand there is the ever-ready willingness to not be over concerned that she doesn’t know everything.  Nor does she expect to.  There is almost a reverence in her ponderings about the shape of heaven in the words, ‘the question of where heaven was was one of those non-questions, it had nowhere to land, and therefore was no question fit to be asked.’  The business of heaven is the business of Mister God and she was quite content to leave that in God’s hands and go about her own business.

There is a faithful agnosticism in her approach to the unseen and the unknown.  It is in the hands of Mister God and it is safe there so why do we need concern ourselves with it?  Today’s Scripture reading echoes this;

Beloved, we are God’s children now;  what we will be has not yet been revealed.  What we do know is this:  when he is revealed, we will be like him.

Down the years I have taken much comfort in this approach to the details of heaven and the life after life.  This is one of the reasons, the other is that I am not over attracted by the world of Dogmatics and counting angels on pinheads, why my favourite Scripture verse is about the questioning of the man born blind by the Pharisees.  When asked if Jesus were the Messiah his response was he didn’t know but…

One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. (John 9v25)

And that is the answer that Anna gives.  What comes next has not yet been made plain, we have some glimpses of it but we do not know it all.  What we need do is not waste time in questions.  Spend time wondering about the ‘whichness of the why’ and the ‘wherefore of the whatever’.  We need to get on with the business of ‘seeing’ what we could not see before.  Asking questions about heaven will not see that cats are cuddled, seeds are planted, or life lived.

During Lent churches in our area have been studying the movie The King’s Speech.  It has helped us look at how other people have coped with the unknown.  In the case of King George VI and his family it was being unprepared to sit on a throne and the world throwing itself into war again.  (Sadly we may be at a similar place now….).   At Christmas 1939 the new king, still trying to overcome his stammer, was given a poem by the then 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth which she thought might help people cope with the unknown future.  You can listen to the whole speech on this video clip.  The poem begins three minutes into the video.

Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the Hand of God.  

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. 

And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Whatever heaven holds, God holds heaven.  The answer to our uncertainty is to hold on to the One who holds us deep in our middle and learn to tread gladly into the night…  towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

And finally….

Whatever heaven is Heaven is a wonderful place, and this song was one of the favourites amongst our children when they were growing up and when they were helping other young people grow in their relationship with Mister God.

Please Note:  These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page  Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.  If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com

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