Sunday noitclefeR

 I've been dieting for almost two years, and I did drop 60 pounds, but I've been on a plateau for over a year now.

Granted, after I got below 200, COVID set in, and I gained the COVID-19. But I've lost 8 of that again.

One of the things that bugs me about Scripture's description of heaven is all the references to food. Bread and wine. The fatted calf. Fat and marrow. Oil on the head dripping down one's beard. Grapes, figs, pomegranates. Loaves and fishes. Eating meals together, pot-luck style. Drunk with the Holy Spirit. New wine in new wineskins. "He prepareth a table before me." A heavenly banquet. 

Then there's that story about the man who wanted to know the difference between heaven and hell. He was taken to a banquet where everyone was given a fork too long for them to feed themselves. That was hell. Then he was taken to the same banquet with the same forks, where everyone fed each other. That was heaven.

I even once made a crack to someone who said I wasn't Christ-like enough because I wasn't meek and subservient and sweet-tempered like a woman should be. I said, "That's why there's vanilla AND jalapeño. And if they're serving tacos at the heavenly banquet, I think you're going to want me there."

People often just don't understand metaphors. They really think they're going to be stuffed with all their favorite Never-foods in heaven. When I was a kid, I pictured ice cream all day, every day.

It's very difficult to read Scripture and stay on my diet. Just reflecting on it makes me want to eat more. And I do love my carbs. 

To compare heaven to a sugar rush is deceptive, at best. 

The kingdom of heaven is among us when we're all in God's Spirit, doing God's will. We don't attain heaven as a reward, like dessert; we live it. If we live heaven, we don't die. 

That's the metaphor. That's it.