My first spiritual experience and most vivid childhood memory occurred while lying on the grass not far from my big sister.
It was the end of the day, and we gazed up at a crisp blue sky. A few puffy clouds drifted above us.
It felt like heaven was near.
For decades, I looked back on that powerful experience.
Then I heard someone say, “Heaven isn’t sky and clouds; it’s faces.”
It changed everything.
Perhaps heaven isn’t just vertical. Maybe it’s horizontal too.
Maybe it’s all around us.
I am convinced that heaven is near.
Heaven is the child walking past you at church on Sunday. The classmate you see sitting alone at school. The stranger who seems to be carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Heaven is the people you connect with every day, especially those you love and live with.
Heaven is the seen and unseen angels the Lord sends into our lives to bless us. They whisper to us that heaven is very close.1
Let’s not wait for some great, other place to see that we are all brothers and sisters in God’s eternal family.
Let’s look around.
Look into another’s eyes.
See God reflected back.
See that heaven is here.
Doctrine and Covenants 84:88: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”
Your friend,
Sister Tamara W. Runia
To Think About
Notes
1. See President Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Ministry of Angels,” general conference, Oct. 2008.