One of the best descriptions I've ever heard of Heaven was in the novel "My Antonia" by Willa Cather. It is a narrative story written in first person. The narrator relates his growing up on the American frontier with a neighbor girl known as Antonia. In the scene of the book that this quote is from the narrator is lying in his aunt's pumpkin patch.
"I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one it comes as naturally as sleep."
Goodness, now I want to read that book! It sounds great!
ReplyDeleteI remember once I felt like I was in heaven: we were praying the rosary outside in the Grotto, and like in the story you quoted, I didn't care about anything changing or expecting anything to happen. I was just glad to be there, one of the many kids praying the rosary.
The picture really fits withe the pumpkin patch setting.