There is a beautiful song by the great singer/songwriter Eric Clapton. It concerns the tragic and sudden loss of his four-year old son, Conor. In the song Mr. Clapton asks whether Conor would remember him in Heaven. It made me think as my heart wept for both. My thoughts inevitably turned to what a god of infinite love would provide for in the heavens for a parent experiencing such a terrible loss. For what more loving purpose would the heavens serve, if not the reunion of such souls as this, separated under the most terrible of circumstances?
If love is truly The Greatest Love’s defining characteristic, Their infinite virtue, then it must extend to the heavens as well and so I believe these souls would be afforded a heartfelt reunion there. And then building upon this belief where would The Greatest Love draw the line? I feel no line could be drawn. If They allow one such reunion, They would allow all souls who cared for one another while alive on Earth to be reunited in the heavens.
In a previous post I described the heavens as “… a temporary yet remarkable existence that allows us to touch the face of The Greatest Love. To be held in Their comforting embrace, to have all of our disease, illness, and infirmity washed away, and then to reflect upon a life lived with honesty and humility.“. I believe this continues to hold true. But reuniting with loved ones must also be a focus.
The heavens become much more than a momentary point of reflection before rebirth. It becomes an extended parallel existence with heavenly souls waiting for earthly others to pass before being reunited with them anew. But eventually we need to be reborn. After all those who we loved have passed and have been reunited with us, our time to be reborn back to Earth will have come.
The Greatest Love will tell us when it is time to leave the heavens. And although it will be a bittersweet moment there will be impulses that draw us back to our earthly realm.
The first comes from within ourselves. We are a curious species that can quickly tire of any eternal existence. Even when that existence surrounds us with those we loved from our previous life.
Secondly although there is no “disease, illness, (or) infirmity” in the heavens it is not without pain and suffering. The pain and suffering that comes from within us. As discussed in an earlier post our thoughts, memories, and feelings from our previous life must follow us to the heavens less we lose a sense of who we were. But there can be pain associated with these aspects of our being. Abhorrent thoughts, traumatic memories, or hateful feelings. They were a part of us before, and they remain a part of us in the heavens.
The Greatest Love will not simply wipe away fundamental aspects of our being that are negative. Doing so would change who we are and make us a different person in the heavens. However, I believe, what They can provide are answers for a specific purpose: to remove any hate that has become a part of our souls. The hate we may harbor towards others. The opportunity to understand the origins of how a person’s evil came to be. How our society failed to catch it. And ultimately how it impacted us and resulted in our hate towards them.
It is this cleansing of hate, this purification process, which I believe is the most important function of the heavens. But our free will prevents it from always being successful. Because even after we know all the historical, and cascading causes and effects of how a person came to hurt us, releasing the hate can still be very difficult. And It is only we who can release our hate. It will never be removed for us by an Invisible Hand of The Divine.
And what if hate cannot be extinguished from a soul in the heavens? Then the delicate job of removing that hate falls to humankind in that soul’s next lifetime on our World. Shower that child with love. Teach them compassion and kindness. Do not let them fall prey to easy biases and bigotries. Always question them and force them to think with empathy in their hearts. And in this way, I believe, the seeds of hate formed from a previous lifetime, will fail to sprout in their new one. Those seeds will wither and die, while the seeds borne of love will flourish.
It is the desire to remove any residual hate along with all the pain and suffering associated with our thoughts, memories, and feelings from our previous lifetime that becomes the second impetus for us to be reborn. Our essence, our character, remains our starting point for that rebirth. It is this essence that The Greatest Love is trying to progress, in concert with the society that surrounds that child, and it can only be done in our Universe.
Thirdly I do not believe that the heavens will be some sort of utopia with all manner of pleasure, and paradise. I believe it exists only in the interest of progressing love in this Universe. In this manner I believe it is a limited existence. There are no engrossing books, exotic getaways, or delicious ice cream. And although the reunifications will be wonderful and joyous it will not compare to the majesty of our World1.
And this is the way I believe it has to be.
The Greatest Love provides the heavens so that we may say any final good-byes that escaped us on our World. So that we may be held in our loved one’s embrace one last time. So that we may quietly share our thoughts and memories about our lifetime together on Earth. And of course to cleanse our hate through the gift of knowledge and understanding. All of these are acts of love and I believe my god has created the heavens to accommodate them.
However the heavens were never created to grow our love. Instead the heavens were created to help dispel our hate, instill hope, and lessen the despair for the loved ones left behind on our World. It is our Universe which was designed by The Greatest Love to progress our love and it is our Universe that, I believe, is Their greatest creation. Not the heavens.
However the thought of being separated from our closest loved ones for all eternity can be distressing. Of being reborn back into a World where different souls will comprise our friends and family. But I find solace in my belief that the loving bonds I have formed in all of my previous lifetimes form the essence of my soul in my current one. Our previous loves will forever remain a part of us. But our love in one lifetime pales in comparison to the love The Greatest Love is trying to establish and progress for all loving beings across all of time and space in this Universe. In order to do so there will be times when They need to introduce previously distant souls to one another. The needs of The Greatest Love and the Divine Plan must outweigh our own individual desires.
However there is also, I believe, an important exception.
It involves a love that is both deep and profound between two individual souls. A love that is selfless, and sacrificial. A love that is worth dying for. When a love such as this is forged, and a greater love becomes unimaginable, I believe The Greatest Love ensures that such souls are reunited with one another in a next life on Earth. The two become soul-mates across the span of multiple lifetimes, for as long as their love endures.
This is what I believe.
1 There is a memorable scene in the movie Arrival where Jodie Foster’s character meets her “father” in an other-worldly experience. In the movie the man turns out not to be her father but instead a member of an advanced space-faring civilization with only compassionate intentions. It too made me think about what a loving god would allow for: moments of renewed life and reconnection in the heavens between souls separated by death on Earth.
A Love Story 