crossing a bridge

2002 was an amazing year for me. Not better than now...just different. I had never written a poem or story in my life yet in 02, I penned dozens of stories, poems and thoughtful wanderings. It started while traveling on a 60 year old cargo plane heading to Haiti with a team of some of my favorite people on earth and the experience lasted for 10 months. One summer day that year...call it a vision or a dream...whatever...I had this sense of what Heaven is like.

Crossing a Bridge

Slowly, calmly I ascend a staircase of crystal. My senses seem confused here. It's like I feel colors and I hear exactly what everyone is thinking as I pass them and they’re thinking beautiful things. Everything is illuminated with a light I’ve never seen. The light I used to feel in my heart now lights the stairs. The absence of evil is breathtaking replaced with a freedom of spirit that permeates every thought and action.

He is here! Not just a sense of His presence. He is here! His voice audibly rumbles with force yet remains somehow tender. You hear that Voice in the same way I remember the sound of traffic and trains. Ever present, in the background, reminding you of an ongoing flow of life. Everywhere you look, He is there.

The subtle things you notice gradually are the most amazing. You are no longer subject to bouts of sadness. You’re first inclinations are positive and servant minded. Self makes no sense here. This is a land of us. No earthly song, painting, poem or story about this place even came close. The attention to detail is so marred by sin on earth that we never really see the true brilliance of our Creator under the deep layers of dust and soot brought about by the fall.

Each of us has one or two brief moments in life where absolutely everything seems perfect. The realization of a dream, falling in love, having a child. The intense feelings that those precious few moments generate are mere shavings of the eternal mood of this place.

Slowly, calmly I ascend a staircase of crystal. The sound of a thousand choirs reverberate in the Grand room. My tears, my struggles with sin, the dark moments of doubt and the seasons of silence are behind me now. As my foot rests on the top step…He calls me by name.