By Jordon Horn
When faced with the task to describe heaven – my brain instinctively goes straight back to the psalms, the hymns, and the many masses I experienced in all those cold draughty hours spent in the various churches I attended in my childhood. All those hours of not fully paying attention, each hour as uninteresting as the next. Lazily daydreaming whilst the priests droned on about the word of God, I was always just more distracted by how unbelievably uncomfortable the pews were!
But still many of the tales and lessons seeped into my brain over time. I remember the descriptions of the Kingdom of God, the evocative imagery; the clouds, the warming light, the lack of pain and suffering. All you have to do is read of it’s description in the Bible itself, there are so many passages to choose from, for example Revelation 21:23 states; ‘the heavenly city needs no sun or moon because the glory of God illuminates it’. Passages such as these are powerful, much of the Bible is, it’s possibly one of the contributing factors to Christianity’s enduring popularity.
But to a young child, who’s head was always in the clouds, who’s imagination was always working overdrive, and who was more interested in ‘more exciting’ fantastical worlds like Middle Earth – the simple pleasure of being in nature offered far more tangible benefits. I could run through the woods near my home and imagine I was in one of Tolkien’s stories. Being in nature was one of the places where my imagination truly could run wild. Where I was happiest. Where I was at peace.
This has followed me through to adulthood. If I’m ever feeling particularly run down, or stressed. The simple act of going for a walk in a field, along a river, or through a forest, still elicits a feeling for me akin to that of the most devout Catholic crossing the threshold into God’s house. There’s something so beautifully profound and peaceful about nature. There’s an almost healing aura to it. The way that every field and every wood, is wholly unique in the world. Getting away from modern life, away from social media, away from technology, to simply enjoy the natural world around us, is the closest thing I can think of to describing heaven.
Whilst there are billions of people around the world, and each one could have a differing account when asked to describe heaven – mine is much more…simple; nature.
