The Five Scenes Where We’ll Meet in Heaven

Cindy and I are continuing our couch potato roles with the new season of our favorite television shows upon us. One of those shows is NCIS. The season opener featured Agent Gibbs flirting with death on the operating table. He follows the stereotypical bright light into a beach scene where he spends time with his daughter, who was killed at a young age. This is a place of peace and contentment for Gibbs, though his daughter tells him he must go back, of course. What would NCIS be without him?!

That got me to thinking about heaven, something I never really do. I feel people need to focus on their time on earth, enjoying the wonders, fulfilling responsibilities, maximizing our potential to love. To the extent I’ve entertained the idea of meeting up with loved ones in an afterlife I am stymied by the practical consideration of who would be available where and when. We all have our own agendas; who is to know when two different souls want to hang together in the same “ether space?”

However, given this view of an afterlife I believe the probabilities of Cindy and me being together occasionally are fairly high. Since the NCIS episode I find myself dwelling on this a little bit, particularly at bedtime. This allows me to take from our past and project to our future in the hereafter. I assume the “ether spaces” must be somewhere we have been before; I assume they must be places that bring some remembrance of peace and contentment together.

If I may borrow and adjust from both NCIS and Mitch Albom, here are five scenes, five “ether spaces,” where I see Cindy and me together in the hereafter.

Our Ithaca Apartment – In my mind’s eye, the two years our family spent in our Ithaca apartment were the most content, carefree years we spent together as a family. I suspect not having a television had something to do with this, along with the sparsity of other furnishings. Mainly, we just had each other in that space, huddled together on our couch reading, bathing our three kids together in the tub, playing together on the living room floor. The only drawback is I don’t suppose we could get our three kids there with us in this “ether space” when they leave this earth as well, they will be lured by their own.

The Norfolk UCC Chapel – Enjoying peace and contentment together in a setting with our children in different stages of development must involve something like our church. I suppose Cindy and I could “float” to the nearby white church in this “ether space,” but we mainly would hang out in the chapel. This is where we spent time as youth group leaders, scout leaders, Sunday school teachers, pageant rehearsals and church functions in general. This is where we started and ended our most amazing long distance hike, the American Discovery Trail. Besides, what better place to be for peace and contentment than a chapel with Tiffany stained-glass windows?

The Top of Mount Katahdin – The Appalachian Trail is not our favorite trail, yet this was the trail we first did together, and Mount Katahdin is one of the most beautiful places of any trail. The spectacular draw of Mount Katahdin has lured me to the top many times, more times than any trail place outside of Connecticut. I’ve climbed to the top with most of my hiking friends; I’ve climbed to the top with a couple of my brothers and extended family; I’ve climbed to the top with Noah when he was only eight years old. Maybe if I linger in this “ether space” I can catch any one of them as well.

Our Attic – Growing up in this house our attic was a storage space. When Cindy and I moved in to take care of my Mom the attic was turned into an additional living space. I understand the irony of picking a space featuring a television but what can I say? As Cindy’s options became more limited we spent more time as couch potatoes up there. With the television as our prompt we spent many moments laughing and crying together in our attic space. We even used it as our bedroom for a few months. Our daughter Serena now lives in that space; I don’t suppose we will ever be couch potatoes again up there. All the more reason to project it now as one of our “ether spaces.”

Our Tent – OK, so this is not one fixed place, all the better! Cindy and I can “meet up” in our tent and then go in our future ether space to anywhere we’ve been in the past. We’ve been on top of many mountains, sat on the shores of many lakes, hiked up many canyons, yet all of these together do not hold the shared peace and contentment of one night spent together in our tent. In our tent we’ve debriefed wilderness days both wonderful and dreadful; cozily weathered ferocious storms together; engaged in separate acts of solitude while yet together … made love together for the first time. To tell the truth I am always thinking about past nights we spent in our tent; why not turn this into thoughts about our future?

I am very interested in what your “ether space” will be. Leave a comment if you have one.