Arriving in Heaven

How delicately, for instance, would she try to take the edge off the grief of bereaved friends by describing the arrival of the spirit in heaven, and the glad welcome that would be got there from those who had gone before.

"Heaven is just a meeting and a homing of our real selves. God will never make us into new personalities. Everlasting life--take that word life and turn it over and over and press it and try to measure it, and see what it will yield. It is a magnificent idea which comprises everything that heart can yearn after."

On another occasion she wrote, "I do not like that petition in the Prayer Book, From sudden death, good Lord deliver us. I never could pray it. It is surely far better to see Him at once without pain of parting or physical debility.

Why should we not be like the apostle in his confident outburst of praise and assurance, 'For I am persuaded...'?" Again: "Don't talk about the cold hand of death--it is the hand of Christ."

Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash

W P Livingstone, Mary Slessor