What Is Heaven?

Is there a heaven, and if so, what is it like there?  Is it behind the rainbows and passed the puffy white clouds?  That's a question that has been asked of me so many times from my children, especially this past year as they search for understanding.   They try to grasp reality as death's fingers have mingled themselves amid their lives.  It's also the question that Chrissy and I talked about while she endured so much suffering and experimentation, emotionally and physically.   She put up with the endless injections, countless doctors' visits, awaited many test results and felt the side effects of each and every chemo treatment.  Some treatments were bearable while others condemned her to an unknown horrible place for awhile.  No one would wish that on their worst enemy, but I suppose I had to reach inside, to have a sense of what she was experiencing.  There was no human way to comprehend her pain unless I had the cancer and the treatments myself.  One time she said the effects of chemo were like being sick with the flu with an additional 20 pounds packed onto each of your shoulders. Certain days our conversations led to heaven.....perhaps it was a distraction from the realities and what if these treatments didn't help.
Her deepest fear was to be separated from her children and her family.  In theory, I could have quoted all the proof as scripted in the Bible by many prophets or from my own beliefs.  When you face your mortality, though, as my sister did, there's so many questions and so much fear that you encounter.  It's quite overwhelming as many of you have witnessed in your own lives.  I'm convinced, as I told her, that we were all going to be there someday.  If she was going to die, she was going to be right here beside us, along with mom and dad, guiding us, laughing at us and finally understanding what this was all about.  It was us who would still have the questions, the sadness, but ultimately we would be okay.
What is this place we call heaven?   Some have proposed that it's a place created by the religions of this world for their own purposes of control.  We are such an untrusting society filled with reservations, including myself.  Why do we instantly believe the infidelities of prominent married couples?  We can believe without seeing in those circumstances.  We rely on what appears to be half truths; yet, we can't convince ourselves that there can be a world that lies beyond this one.........a heaven waiting for us.  Why is it challenging to accept that perhaps a world exists that mimics this one, without all the mess. A world that generates light, love, joy and complete perfection.  A place that exists so much closer than we've ever been taught.  With a world full of disappointments and suffering; how could we envision such a place?  The answer for me my friends is easy:  there has to be something better than this.  This world is full of so many blessings and fulfillment; yet, we also have the cancers, the deaths, the ugliness of the world.   With all of this, the good and the bad, there has to be so much more, more than we can comprehend.
How is it that I sense the sadness in my child's heart without a word being spoken?  Why did I fall in love with my husband and continue to feel his love even when he's not in the room?  It's not always visible, but I know it to be true.  Why do I feel fear when nothing has happened, but I can sense danger?  How do I know when a friend is hurting even though we haven't spoken in awhile, but I sense something is wrong?  How can I look at the starry, twinkling night sky or the vastness of the depths of the oceans that seem to blanket us with its beauties, and not feel a glimpse of heaven?  To witness the birth of a child and feel their heart beat inside of yours; how can you not feel a sense of something greater going on?  
Imagine a place so beautiful that you never want to leave, a place without pain or disappointments, no heartache, only pure constant love.  Imagine being happy all the time, never knowing anger or fatigue.  Imagine the most gorgeous sunset with the warmth beaming on your face. Imagine reading the best comic book.  Imagine eating the sweetest icecream cone outside, and there's never a bee  in sight that will annoy you.   Imagine seeing Aunt Chrissy's face again and being surrounded by all our family.....with love all the time....and fun BBQ's.  Imagine having your best time ever.  Imagine falling down but not feeling the pain.  Imagine playing with all your favorite toys whenever you want.  Can you see that?  That's what I tell my children......and that's what heaven is to me.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?"

John 11:  25-26