Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet, Lord my God, give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

• 2 Chronicles 6:18-21

The highest heavens belong to the Lord,
    but the earth he has given to mankind.
It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
    those who go down to the place of silence;
it is we who extol the Lord,
    both now and forevermore.
Praise the Lord.

• Psalm 115:16-18

“Ye cannot fully understand the relations of choice and Time till you are beyond both.”

• C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

I have heard a panel of pastors argue as to how many heavens there are.  There is the “heaven” that is our earth’s atmosphere.  Some claim that the location of the highest clouds, that part of our earth’s atmosphere that is above the cloud deck when you are flying in a large airplane is another heaven.  Then you have the galaxy we are in, the Milky Way.  But then you have the entire universe, including galaxies that have yet to be discovered.

But then, the “highest heaven” is where God resides.  I remember hearing N. T. Wright explain on a video that God is everywhere and the “highest heaven” could be considered a thin veil.  God is right there with you.  Eternity is just a movement of the veil away from us.  But we are unable to see it.

So, now we get to the heart of the C. S. Lewis quote.  When we step beyond the veil or we consider God, just on the other side of that veil, watching over us.

How can God spend all that time watching over little ol’ me?  God is infinite.

Humans have a hard time wrapping themselves around the infinity concept.  God exerts tremendous strength to create a new galaxy far out in space, and He still has infinite power left to keep us from harm, each of us.  Even the analogy of taking a bucket full of water from an incoming wave at the beach.  Have we put a dent in the water level of the ocean?  Not at all, but if every human on earth did that, there might be a dent.  With God, there is infinitely more left over.

So, is the highest heaven some sort of parallel universe?  Not really, but in a concept that we can understand, maybe, just a little.

I can grasp a parallel universe behind the veil, but that universe is outside time and space.  I have written that when I pass to the other side of the veil, I might just stare into the eyes of Jesus for a million years.  But there is no earth time on the other side of that veil.  Is there time at all?  Yikes!  I have no idea.  It is something beyond my comprehension.

I have imagined that I might have a little television with my life on it.  I could spin the dial to any point and remember that moment.  I can see God, outside of time and space, spinning a large screen television to take infinite care of something while He could see that first Christmas or He could see the Rapture, just by turning the dial.  That’s all guessing, but it helps me understand how God is outside time.

But some of the things that I just discussed are where C. S. Lewis was going.  We cannot understand the flow of time and space in our lives completely, until we are beyond both.

I heard another panel discussion of four pastors talk about such things recently.  The key is that God will reveal such things at the appropriate time.  We have no idea what to expect, only that it will be more glorious than anything we can imagine here on earth.  What we need to focus on here is loving and serving God.  We will have an eternity to enjoy the benefits.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.