Thursday 10th December 2020: Advent Reflection: David Eldridge

 

WAITING – FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE !

On one Saturday each month I attend (recently via Zoom) a Mens’ Breakfast with a small group of (you’ve guessed it) men originally drawn from a number of churches in the locality.  I say “originally” because last month one of us (there were 10 in all) logged in from Australia!  And the subject chosen for discussion by our leader of the month was “Heaven” – someone commented that this was the first time we had thought about this specifically in all the 10 years that the group has been in existence.

Naturally we started by looking at references in the Bible – which after all starts the Old Testament with the words “In the beginning God created the heavens . . .”.   And that in itself gave rise to the questions of how many heavens there might be,  and if more than one why, and do the heavenly host that appeared to the shepherds in the Christmas story inhabit all of them ?

In a way it was reassuring to find that we all had a fairly similar concept of what a singular  heaven might amount to,  however mystic.   I wonder if it would be the same as yours ?  Certainly all the wonder and joy of Christmas, and the lead up to it,  do seem to bring at least a little bit of heaven to earth, just as actually happened in that stable so long ago.  Maybe it’s just as well that it was a star that led the wise men to Bethlehem and not the moon,  bearing in mind that the Chinese rocket recently launched is on a mission to bring back a bit of the moon for scrutiny on earth !  But I do hope that the approach of your own Christmas would stand up to such scrutiny and give you a taste of heaven to share on earth - with a few personal angels of course.