Heavenward - Longing & Becoming, Part 3
The Three Sisters, Glencoe Valley, Scotland
A Far Green Country…
“That night they heard no noises. But either in his dreams or out of them, he could not tell which, Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind; a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.”
The Lord of the Rings - Book I Chapter 8 - "Fog on the Barrow-Downs"
( Spoiler alert: Having just returned from a trip to the UK where we visited some of the haunts of C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien, this blog may contain some of their quotes :)
The eternal land appearing to Frodo in this vision was no doubt informed by Tolkien’s own faith commitments to Christ and convictions about Heaven.
Tina and I were blessed to attend the memorial service yesterday for a beloved saint known by church family as “Brother Bud”. Bud was 95 years old. A contagious laugh and sense of humor, Bud existed to make everyone at First Church of the Nazarene at Lebanon feel welcome and seen. Every Sunday she was able, we would bring Nola to attend, as the church was just minutes from Memory Care. Bud was often one of the first to greet us on the way in, taking Nola by the arm and escorting her when her gait had become unstable.
”Have you ever had somebody tell you they’d ’get round to it’ when you needed something?” He asked, placing a round wooden tablet in our hands. Turning it over, it had “Tuit” engraved on one side. “There! Now you can give them this and say ‘Well get Tuit!’” (Get it? A “round Tuit”…). This was classic Bud. Finding ways to make you laugh, let your guard down and feel completely like you belong. He was textbook for how to engage somebody with Lewy Body dementia - I often think of him as a “Lewy Body Charmer”
Too Heavenly Minded?
You’ve likely heard the expression “too heavenly-minded to be of earthly good”. It was precisely because Bud was so heavenly-minded, focused on Jesus and the great reward awaiting all those who faithfully love and serve Him that Bud had such a phenomenal impact on this world.
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”
C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.138, Simon and Schuster
But keeping our focus Heaven-ward isn’t just the past time of a few great authors and elderly pastors and evangelists (Bud had been both). It’s a commandment from Scripture:
“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
Colossians 3:2-4, NKJV
In the past blog entry, I mentioned how Nola was constantly caught in a homesick longing for Campbells Creek, West Virginia. It was a driving narrative for her that caused deep anxiety, grief, and lament (A common occurrence for those with dementia). While difficult to redirect, we would often try to shift the focus to our heavenly home. We would try to stoke the imagination of what that great reunion would be like one day, when we cross the threshold of eternity and see Jesus face to face, and all our beloved family and friends in the faith who have gone before us and are welcoming us now into the truest, purest, most enduring reality we could possibly know.
I remember many conversations with my own Mom about Heaven before her passing. She had endured many frustrating and debilitating health challenges up to her death, which would leave her constantly longing for that day when all this immobility and suffering would be a thing of the distant past. As she gazed toward Heaven, her imagination would sparkle with dreams about what would be awaiting us. It would propel her to deeper faith and endurance in her earthly struggle, which would impact those observing her journey from the outside.
As a Glove is Made for a Hand
As I reflect on the substance of those conversations with Mom, and with the musings about Heaven with which we would try to steady Nola’s gaze, I’m reminded of this quote about Heaven by C.S. Lewis:
“But God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love. Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it--made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.“
C.S. Lewis - The Problem of Pain
In other words, Heaven will be “Home”… in the most complete, full, ecstatic, and satisfying way imaginable.
When Pastor Gary was closing out his eulogy for Brother Bud, he shared how Bud had a love for woodworking, and when unable to do many of the other things he had done throughout his life to love and serve others, he would turn to his woodworking to make beautiful custom name placards for church members, fun and witty games and gestures, and yes, “round tuits” to help lighten the load of weary caregivers like ourselves. Pastor Gary imagined that when Bud met Jesus, Jesus introduced him to his new heavenly mansion and right beside it, the most beautiful, fully-stocked woodworking shop he could dream of. Jesus said to Bud,
‘Bud, here is your new name, engraved in heavenly wood and inlaid with gold. And since I know you loved doing this so much, how would you like to be part of my heavenly welcome team? You can design and engrave those new name wooden placards for all my children coming home…’.
Now that, to borrow C.S. Lewis’ words, would fit Bud “as a glove is made for a hand”.
A First Faint Gleam of Heaven is Already Inside You
Beloved caregiver, have you stopped to think recently that the labor you do in love to care for your loved one can be helping them “become”? Whether death is imminent or not, the creative ways we help our loved ones and ourselves focus on Heaven and its unfathomable mysteries and glories, actually allow us to become more in touch with our heavenly design and purpose in the here-and-now. Every kind gesture is eternal, every creative way of reinforcing value and love, an act rooted in Heaven’s economy.
“Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Tolkien describes a “pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, …growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise”.
But I think the best and most reassuring description is from Scripture itself:
“I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”
Revelation 21:3-5, NLT
The Serious Business of Heaven
I want to “flip back a few pages” to a passage of Scripture with which I opened this “Longing & Becoming” series:
“Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.”The Holy Bible: English Standard Version
(Ps 84:4–7). (2016). Crossway Bibles.
The more we set our longing in this world on that coming new world reality of Revelation 21, the more our efforts, labors, and even struggles of this world are infused with hope and vitality, becoming ever lighter and more winsome, transforming arid places (Valleys of Baca) into places of springs. No place have I seen this truth more transparent than on the caregiver journey. As we lay down our lives for others in the love of Christ, not only are they able to become more fully what “they already are”, but we too are transformed. And the mundane, wearisome, and thankless labors of our day can become saturated in what C.S. Lewis has famously referred to as “Joy …the serious business of heaven”.
