Parallel Worlds

I just finished reading Philip Yancey’s book Rumors of Another World. In it, He describes heaven as a parallel invisible world around us. He compares our life to that of a whale which spends most of its life under water. Unlike fish, whales have to come up to the surface of the water for air. The whale is aware of just the threshold of another world. It doesn’t know about the mountains, trees, land animals, or how humans live outside the water. Similarly, we may go up to the surface of the spiritual realm occasionally, but we have no idea of the complexities of this invisible world.

I really liked this analogy. For some time now, I’ve had a difficult time accepting the description of heaven portrayed in the Book of Revelation. I prefer to think of heaven, not as a place as much as a state of being. I imagine heaven as being with God eternally, and hell as being apart from God eternally. I can sense that there is an invisible spiritual world. Like the whale, I too must breathe from the surface of the spirit realm so as to survive and function in my normal habitation.

Although I like Yancey’s analogy, I sometimes feel more like a prisoner than a whale. This life seems like a prison from which I occasionally get to talk with God through a thick glass window, over a staticky phone line. I discuss the problems inside the prison walls, while He tells me about life outside. My daily work seems as trivial as trading cigarettes and other contraband. Unlike some of the other prisoners, I haven’t learned to just deal with my life sentence and make the best of my incarceration. Instead, I wait wistfully for news from the outside.