Heaven, like God, is not bound by time.
My sister once nearly cried herself to sleep trying to wrap her elementary-schooled mind around the eternal nature of God and the experience scarred me, so, I don’t often try to ponder the implications of God’s everlasting presence.
Besides, of course, that heaven will last forever. I usually just leave it at that.
The odds of heaven using our 365-day calendar are, theologically speaking, very slim.
But, still.
In the holiday season my mind often turns to my grandmother.
I have no reason to believe she isn’t in heaven. (She died in a state of grace, last rights and all).
And part of me wonders if heaven is not a better place for her party-foods: rice crispy treats (the best you’ve ever tasted); kielbasa in a square white-glass bowl with a 70’s floral design etched in gold ink on the side; carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, in a metal 9 x 13 pan, and the frosting smoothed with the back of a butter knife.
It was how she loved on earth…why would heaven not give her a similar opportunity to love more?
Maybe in heaven (like on the earth), the saints have their feast days celebrated as well. (Probably not, but, maybe).
Maybe, like, for instance, a few weeks back, when it was the feast of St. Andrew Kim and companions, my grandmother took St. Andrew Kim a plate of rice crispy treats. Maybe, after she made them and they cooled, she cut them into squares and wrapped them in cupcake papers, the way she always did, and she brought them over to his corner of heaven on a plate wrapped in plastic wrap.
And, maybe, him being from Korea, he had never even tried rice crispy treats before, but my grandmother was a very hospitable and very accepting woman, so I’m sure they would have hit it off (it being heaven and all).
Maybe she told him about her grandkids.
Maybe he taught her one of his native dances (Lord, did she love to dance!)
Maybe they talked about faith or memories or any number of things.
And maybe they did all of this, with his companions, over a platter of rice crispy treats.
I don’t know that any of this is true.
But, I know that I love my grandma.
And I know that I believe in heaven.
And I know that heaven is better than I could imagine (the Bible says this).
All this is so.
Also, my imagination is limited.
And it stops at the point where my grandmother and St. Andrew Kim have rice crispy treats together to celebrate the best things either of them has ever known.
