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"How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84)

I received this very poignant reminder yesterday from Jo - our very own new Vicar in Yorkshire. NB - I was asked to shorten it, but how could I rob you of the absolute Blessing...?

At a funeral the other day, I had what I would call a “missed opportunity” with a lady where I chose to remain quiet about the presence of God here on Earth. This particular lady was very poorly indeed and had had to walk to her son’s mother-in-law’s grave, carrying an oxygen mask, which was really keeping her alive.

As I walked behind all the mourners, I could see her struggling and falling behind the crowd; she was urging her son to leave her behind so he could be with his partner to support her. I gently walked up behind her, rested my hand on her back, and gently rubbed it and we walked at her pace as the son moved on. No words were spoken. As we neared the grave, the people made a way through for her to again be reunited with her son. In those few moments of walking with someone so poorly, I felt the presence of God as he gave her the strength to carry on.

After the burial, this beautiful lady’s son went to get the car to pick his mother up and she was left for a few moments with Bob and I. We spoke about her illness, we assured her of our prayers, and she let us know that the gentle massage on her back eased the pain which came from her laboured breathing... we dared to mention what we believed happened when we died.

It was at this point that, as I reflect, I feel I missed God’s prompting. She said: “I don’t believe there is a hell; I believe we are living in hell right now, and when we die, we go to Heaven.” As I was pondering what she had just said I could so easily have agreed with her. The wars that are raging, the famines, the earthquakes, the floods, the way that humankind’s greed is eating up our planet’s resources. The corruption, the political leaders who just seem to want their own glory, the hate that people shout just because they don’t agree with one another about religion or sexuality, the role of a particular gender or class, the way children are left without a family, the way some people treat animals so badly.... etc., etc. Yes, this could make us believe we are living in hell right now.

Before I had a chance to make a response though, the lady’s son had arrived with the car, and she was whisked away. As I pondered this afterwards, this is what I would have wanted to say: “Hell is the absence of God. God is love. Therefore, hell is the absence of love, and if this is the case, then our world cannot be hell.

The path the lady had been on in her mind would have been painfully eternal, with no loving son walking next to her to offer comfort and no car to pick her up at the end. No oxygen to relieve her breathing and no back massage from a stranger. There would be no relief anywhere – no hospitals, no doctors, no teachers, no beauty from nature, no place where we could come to worship our Lord... because if this was hell, He wouldn’t be here.

The above Psalm speaks about His Courts, and where are His Courts? Here, in our hearts. We are His Temple, and we are to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth without ceasing. If we are in love with God, then Heaven is in our hearts, and we are bringing heaven to Earth.

If we bring love to just one person a day, then we are stopping our world from being hell on Earth. This is true worship, and we are taught to pray every day, “May your will be done here on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

I may have missed my chance at the graveside … I wonder what you would have said had you been there? Let’s pause here and take a few minutes to Thank God for all that makes our world Heaven on Earth... knowing that one day, there will be Heaven for eternity for all those who believe in Him.

Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. Christ-conquerors are safe from Devil-death.” (Rev 2:11)