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Heaven, simply put IS the Garden of Eden. We started there, and in a very real sense, and we will finish there. There is a wonderful quote:

“Perfect for snuggling up and sharing special moments, the Beautiful Garden is more than a story–it’s a bridge to meaningful conversations about faith, friendship and the wonders of God’s Creation. Because every child deserves to drift off to sleep with the Beauty of Eden in their hearts”

The Beautiful Garden by Grace Summers

We are those children, God’s children, all of us. And as we face the rather difficult world we live in, it grows ever more important that we “drift off to sleep with the Beauty of Eden in our hearts”, and the reazlization that the Garden Of Eden is Heaven, and will be our forever Home 🙂

Do yourself a favor, Take one fear off the table. Dying is not something to be afraid of. Because dying is just the door to Heaven-the Garden of Eden.

Are when we meet God :).

Someone once said that “understanding begins at the edges of our imagination”. It’s a great quote. The Trinity includes our Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. One. And Three.

But although we may struggle to understand the Trinity, we can Trust that God will make all things clear when we arrive in Heaven.

When we meet God, we will truly know the fullness of God’s Love for us :). Our Joy in this Love will know no boundaries.

But we will also look back upon our lives with God with complete honesty, and see not only all of our sins, but all of the things we should have done-and did not.

And then, we will truly be freed of all of them.

And we will understand, in full, just how truly forgiven we are. And how truly free.

And that freedom will include freedom from all temptation.

Finally we will be truly free!

First of all, let’s start with “Who opens the Gate”. Jesus does. And He can’t wait for us to come Home :). And He can’t wait to hug us!

What will we see when we first come to Heaven? We will see God in all His glory. We will see all of those we loved and all those who loved us shining. They will be so happy that we are there!

And we will see all of those that we shared the Gospel with.

And we will see the Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Friend 🙂

We will be welcomed and loved as never before. And we will finally be Home 🙂

We Follow Jesus to Heaven 🙂

Our Father and Jesus each hold one of our hands. And sometimes the Holy Spirit and Mary also comfort us as we go through the harder parts of the path. God will never leave us 🙂

We need to picture ourselves as children, holding their Hands as they lovingly guide us up the path to our Home.

This too is Prayer 🙂

Jesus loves children. One has only to read the Bible to see just how much. And it doesn’t say He loved American children or Mexican children or Saudi Arabian children, just as the Bible does not say that He loved white children, or brown children or black children.

Jesus loves ALL children and so should we!

This video came out in the nineties. And they are right-Hope always endures!

September 11th ushered one of the largest revivals that this country has ever seen. And with it, we placed our Hope in Christ, but sadly that Hope faded.

Now we see many revivals springing up on college campuses and among the young. And many in other countries. They may not show these revivals on TV, but they ARE happening. Once again, Hope lives!

It is easy to become overwhelmed by the events of our world. By the sheer evil that exists.

But Jesus said: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33

I know that many of my friends have wondered at times how I have had such a deep and abiding faith? The answer is much simpler than it may appear. I asked God to give me a deep and abiding Faith, every single day.

I asked Him on days when I truly had a lot of Faith. I asked Him on days that I did not. I even asked Him for a deep and abiding Faith on the days I wasn’t even sure that He existed. It takes some discipline to ask God for Faith on days you don’t even know if you believe in Him, lol. But not much :). Remember the mustard seed 🙂

Deep and abiding Faith is a Gift from God. We don’t earn it; we Pray for it. And God is so happy to give it to us!

And Faith might be the only thing that gets stronger each year we are alive. And God can give it to you too 🙂

When we take an inventory of our sins so that we can repent, most of them were rooted in selfishness. Think of it, even the “white” lies we tell, are to spare ourselves the guilt of hurting another’s feelings. But we know that God told us to always tell the truth. What about when we walk past a homeless person? Isn’t it our own fear of selfishness that keeps us walking? What about when we turn on a movie we really know we shouldn’t watch, but we want to, so we do. What about when we don’t spend enough time with our spouse, when we don’t put them first? Is that not a type of selfishness.

We live in a world where words and actions such as “self-fullfilment”, self-realization, self love are popular. In fact, you could say our current society is based upon them. But read God’s Word, and you will not find them. When Jesus came His command was:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:34-35

“The Answer Is Love. It’s always been love! The answer from God has always been love!”

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” – Psalm 107:1

Being grateful leads to such complete happiness. This is one thing I know well. I have led a really hard life. I have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and suffer from its sypmptoms daily, but I am one of the happiest people I know. And those who know me well, would say the same 🙂

Sometimes, I am just happy. Sometimes life is hard, and I am still happy. One of the things that helps me to be happy when life is hard is to count my Blessings. I belong to Jesus. I get to pray. I get to do penance for my sins here, instead of later. I have visions and the love of my spiritual family. I am so Blessed.

But there are earthly Blessings too. I have enough to eat. I am warm at night and lay in a comfy bed with a great blanket. I can enjoy the beauty of nature. I can see and hear. I have a husband and children who love me! I can leave the house. I can sit in the garden. I can listen to music. I can read. I have friends who love me! Even though I am sick, I am well enough to do what God wants me to do and much of what I want to do :).

We all have God’s Blessings, but sometimes we have to look for them and count them to remind ourselves of just how much God has Blessed us with 🙂

So often, we find ourselves wishing that we could be closer to Jesus. Closer to God. And although we don’t realize it, somehow we are thinking that somehow we should be doing something to be closer to God.

But the truth is, being drawn closer to God is a Gift. And all we need to do is ask God to bring us closer. He will be so very happy that we did 🙂

Follow Jesus & Keep Praying; Prayer Changes Things!