Heaven

For some reason I have always had this skewed vision of what heaven would be like... I don't know when it started or who told me what to make me think this... But imagine this: 

A giant golden paved street with beautiful buildings lining it. The buildings and houses are merely for show, nobody ever sleeps and nobody lives there, they are just walls to the golden street. The street is so wide that millions of people are crowded together, and at the end of the street is God. And we all stand in the street and look to God while he smiles, and we worship him and now to him.... Like a crazy brainless (but happy) cult... 

That's what heaven had always been in my mind. A crowd of people with no thoughts... There's no pain, no sadness... But we just mindlessly worship. 

It has come to my attention that this is not what heaven is. In fact, this sounds awful to me. 

So here is my new information that I'd love to write down in this free typed memory bank: 

God is real. He wants us to have the opportunity to make choices. He gave us free will because He wants us to decide for ourselves to follow Him and know Him. It's a gift. To us and to Him. When we choose to believe, that is the happiest moment for our Heavenly Father. As an earthly mother or father would want their child to choose to love and obey them... It's not fun for anyone if you are tortured into obeying... 

Anyway.. Free will is a gift. 

Satan thought that free will wasn't a good idea. He wanted people to be mindless. To obey for the sake of obeying. And not an inch of wiggle room. So he was banished from Gods kingdom. 

This is where heaven and hell come in. 

Damnation. Think about that word for a second. 

Shunned to hell. 

But where is is derived from? 

A dam is built to stop the flow of water.

The cessation of progressing water...

Damnation is the same thing. The cessation of human progress. 

So Hell is a place where progress ceases. 

Where certain beings go and stop learning, stop growing... Stop thinking. 

If Heaven is the opposite... Then the definition must also be opposite.

Heaven is a place where progress continues. But where there is no satan to try to lure us to his lair... 

Heaven is protected, sacred and holy. A place where we will continue to grow closer to our creator and yes, we can worship God because we have chosen to do so.