Encouragement

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When I read the Holy Bible as a child there were many words and phrases, such as the one above, which, try as hard as I could, I just could not understand. I suppose this was quite natural, as both the old and the new testaments were written in the archaic language of the King James version of the Holy Bible of 1611, very difficult for any child of limited education, as I was, to grasp.

In my young mind then I took the words ‘I my Fathers house there are many mansions’ literally, imagining that God lived in a huge house in the sky somewhere, similar to the large buildings where I lived in north London. However, my interpretation of this phrase now, and I stand to be corrected, is that ‘in my fathers house there are many mansions’ is intended as a reference to Heaven.

It is one of the core beliefs of Christianity that there is a heaven waiting for us, and I think that on this subject I can do no better than quote from the Encarta Encyclopaedia:

“The general belief of Christians is that, since the resurrection of Christ, the souls of the just who are free from sin are admitted immediately after death into heaven, where their chief joy consists in an unclouded vision of God known as the beatific vision. Their bliss is eternal, but at the general resurrection their souls are to be re-united to their perfected or glorified bodies”.

The belief that our time on earth is foremost a preparation for an afterlife is not unique to Christians, it is shared by many other religions throughout the world. In Islam, for example, heaven is seen as a paradise of material delights, although such delights are generally considered to be symbolic, while the idea of heaven to Buddhists is Nirvana, a state of absolute bliss and wisdom, attained only by the eradication of all desires.

Even in ancient mythology they had their idea of what would happen after death. In Norse mythology the heroic warriors were assured of a place in Valhalla, the hall of the slain, and the righteous dead of ancient Greece would dwell in perfect happiness in their Elysian Fields.
Every one of us during our time on this Earth has their fair share of troubles, with illness, loss, grief, and all the other problems and emotional turmoil we encounter along the way.

It is a comforting thought then that when this earthly journey is over our spirit will be conveyed to a place of peace and harmony, where former enemies will join hands in a token of friendship, and where we will be re-united with our loved ones who have already passed on.

But until that day comes we must surely do everything within our power to make our life on this earth the best we can, to learn all we can, and to amass all we can, not as an act of blatant selfishness, but in a sense of generosity. For how can we share with others if we have nothing of our own to give, and how can we contribute to the community if we do not have the necessary skills.

While we are here, and while we have the health and strength, we can create a little bit of heaven here on earth knowing that we have within ourselves the knowledge, the belief and the commitment to make that extra effort, for that distinguishes the mediocre existence from a glorious life well lived.

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