Kate’s Heaven

Happy Easter (almost..I will be too busy tomorrow to write)! Easter has got me thinking about heaven…ya know…since that is the real gift of Easter….Heaven! In Heaven, I am going to spend my time between rocking newborn babies, painting…and drinking coffee while chatting with God and the angels on the porch o…f my chartreuse farmhouse. happy easter….what is your heaven?

This was the Facebook status of my darling daughter, Kate – my son Ben’s wife, on the day before Easter 2010.  And it made me think about what is my heaven?  In the here and now, what are the things that give me pause?

It also makes me think about Vivian Swift’s “acre of earth” theory in her book “When Wanderer’s Cease to Roam”.  Kinda the same idea in some ways.  What are the things you treasure, that hold that “Ah” space in your soul?  Kate’s pretty focused here – or else the character limit on Facebook status held her short.  Me?  Not so much.  But I’ll be brief so you have time to both read my brilliance – ha! – and think about this for yourself.

In heaven, I’m going to spend my time cooking BIG giant meals for a table surrounded by my family and my friends.  Because when you break bread together, there is something incredibly intimate about the nurturing of being fed, the banter of being known, and the lingering long after the food has gone cold and too many bottles of wine consumed and all the grandchildren have run off to play.

In heaven, I’m going to actually have a green thumb instead of just wish for one – and my flowers will riot all summer long!  This will be amazing since I would also like bookshelves everywhere one looks including outside and I’m not entirely sure how the rain is going to work into this…but it’s heaven so I’m sure it will work out.

I’ll get to ask God all those questions that I’ve wondered about and while I’m betting that I won’t get the answers straight up – I think I’ll have the courage to traverse the path to finding out.

When I read Kate’s post, she has identified – probably inadvertently – some of her most foundational character traits:  she is a wonderful momma, very creative, certainly not walking down the path most chosen, and a friend of God.  And I’m going to have coffee with her as often as she’ll have me!