Heaven
When you think of heaven, what is the picture that comes to mind? Do you see a medieval painting with rotund Cherubim lounging on clouds, far from the reach of man? Is it more down to earth than that? Where is God? What does he look like? Is Jesus there? In ancient Jewish cosmology, specifically in first-century Jewish culture, heaven was not a place that was distant. It was all around them. It was in the atmosphere that surrounded them. It was in the air that touched their skin and as close as their next breath. Somehow over the next 2000 years, popular culture (though it is not popular anymore to consider these things) succumbed to an uninformed and two dimensional rendering of heaven. It is a heaven that is far away - somewhere where we go after we die. Somewhere that has no impact on our thinking in the here-and-now grinding monotony of the every-day, in the secular life. It is safe to say that this is not the view Jesus h...