Chapter 3
Vision
A GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN
Even though the header looks rather psychedelic,
I’m just trying to convey the radiant beauty of my vision.
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My husband, Gary, and I phase in and out of our love for fishing. Maybe it’s because we have such long spells between the fishing and the catching!
Shortly after we bought a 14’ Gregor aluminum boat, we went on a fishing frenzy, trying to drop a line into every lake we could find up in the Rim Country of central Arizona. The season before, I went fishing with a couple of friends for a girls' day out. We stopped at several lakes near the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona to check out the action. There didn't seem to be much going on, so we kept heading east along State Route 260. At SR273 we made a right turn to throw our lines in at Sunrise Lake. Renee, using her dad’s pole, noticed it still had a dry piece of Power Bait on it, but threw it in anyway. Her line was immediately hit by a big rainbow trout! After she hauled it in she pulled out the hook, which still had the old bait on it. Her mom, Carolyn, thought she'd give the old bait a try and cast out the line. Another trout hit the line immediately, so she hauled in a nice one, as well. Next, it was my turn. Believe it or not, I used the same pole and the same piece of bait and caught a 14” brown beauty! With that inspiration, Gary and I headed up to the White Mountain lakes. Big rainbows at Sunrise Lake weren't biting that day. Not to waste the trip, however, we drove on out to the Big Lake Recreation Area. The area was my kind of forest. It had tall, fragrant pines, aspen and oak trees with little underbrush and expansive rolling meadows filled with wildflowers - and elk! Large herds of elk. We drove down to Big’s boat ramp, and while Gary backed our Gregor in, I stood on the dock holding the tie-line until the muffler started blowing bubbles and the boat released. Several anglers seemed to be having some pretty good luck, so we revved up the RPMs on our Honda 8 and made our way across the lake. No sooner did we get set up for casting our lines, than a big storm cell developed overhead. Suddenly, the angry black cloud started hurling bolts of lightning at the lake and all upon it. It was clear that the storm was going to bluster around the lake for a while, so all boaters hustled back to shore to wait it out. Gary called over to me to head on up to the car to beat the downpour while he tied off the line and secured the boat. Now, here’s the thrill I want to share. As I hurried up the boat ramp, there was a small grove of aspen trees at the top, straight ahead of me. Suddenly, I saw the patch of trees part as though they were a stage curtain. Then, at that moment I had a glimpse of the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. It was the Holy City - Heaven! I knew I saw something beyond this dimension and it took my breath away as I stood there in rapt awe. The glorious place, in my wide-eyed vision, was varied in the lustrous brilliance of gold. The form was cubic and had straight, tall pillars, and what appeared to be windows of shimmering transparent blue glass. The Good Book tells us that we are going to walk on streets paved with gold. Most often, readers do not follow that particular verse to the end. What it says, further, is that “The great street of the city was of pure gold like transparent glass.” (Emphasis mine) – Revelation 21:21. Most would say that they have never seen gold as transparent as glass. Most of us think gold is weighty and substantial, but not transparent. However... |
Several years before, when we owned Rovetto Jewelers in Anacortes, Washington, a sales representative came by with an exceptional inventory. The items were glass animals set on a faux piece of white coral.
What was extraordinary is that in the making, while the glass was still very hot, 24-karat gold mist was sprayed onto the item, bonding the gold to the glass. Just looking at the figurine, be it a whale or a bird in flight, the gold appeared solid in color. However, when the item was held up to the light, the glass became completely transparent, and iridescent blue. It was gold as "clear as crystal." The vision I had at Big Lake changed my perspective of Heaven, forever. Before, Heaven was a fringe benefit to my salvation in Jesus Christ. I don’t mean that flippantly. It’s just that I’ve needed so much help from God in my day to day existence, that I focus on His help in seeing me through the miry traps of life. Now, however, since that vision, Heaven has become a destination that I am eagerly anticipating. I felt a tremendous joy in what Heaven will offer to those who are believers in the place Jesus has prepared for them. I felt the peace. I felt the excitement. I felt the desire to pack my bags with the only spiritual treasures my Jesus cares about – sharing the good news of freedom from the entrapment of sin. You know, all those things we do that are wrong. For those who believe He forgives all our transgressions and forgets them "as far as the east is from the west." That complete forgiveness brings healing to our souls and bodies. When Jesus said, “It is finished.” It was what? Finished! It is a dimension we can step into. He tells us to "be in the light as He is in the light." Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. However to attain it in our physical form is impossible because the faster matter goes, the more weighty thrust it needs. Therefore, we can understand when He tells us that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven." (1 Corinthians 15:50) How then? How then can we achieve being in the Light? Once again, His marvelous Word gives us the answer. We achieve being in the Light in spirit and and truth. With that knowledge at hand, we can -- if we, in the spirit, are truth tellers, we can instantly be in His Light, in His presence! This is such glorious wisdom. He lovingly dropped this song into my heart after my journey of understanding what it means to be (exist) in the Light of His presence... As I step into your presence, Lord and praise your Holy Name. I offer up my will to You and take your Master's claim. For it is You, I want to serve. Yes, it is You, I long to be with. O, it is You who's given my life meaning. I want to love you Lord with all of me. You help me see with spirit-eyes a world of hurt and pain. You've born in me a sense of grief for all humanity. So, now I'll serve You, Lord. I want my heart to show it. Yes, I will love You, Lord. I want the world to know it. For it is You who's given my life meaning. I desire to love You, Lord, with all of me. Before leaving Big Lake, we waited until the weather cleared and went back to take pictures of where I saw my “Glimpse of Heaven.” This time I noticed something I missed before. On the right and the left of the opening were black basaltic boulders the size of tree stumps. They had significant meaning to me because they reminded me of the Levitical high priest, Aaron. His robe of righteousness had a large black onyx stone on each shoulder. On each stone was engraved the twelve tribes of Israel, six in birth order on one, and six in birth order on the other. The other most beautiful sight to me was this large jasper stone sitting squarely in the middle of the aspen grove. The significance was that the Word says that “the One who sat upon the throne was like a jasper stone.” Revelation 4:3. I still remember the ministry insight the Lord gave to me concerning the jasper stone when I first acknowledged the verse. I said to Him, “Why a jasper stone?” The simile could have been a brilliant diamond, ruby, or sapphire. To me, jasper was just an ordinary “kick around” stone. To which the Lord replied, “Exactly!” Postscript: The year of my Glimpse of Heaven vision, Gary and I went to visit Ecuador. Before going, we did research. We planned our activities. We carefully planned what went into our few bags. Our preparation was as thorough as we could make it. We prepared to get the most out of our trip. That’s the way I feel about my spiritual journey, now that I’ve had... A Glimpse of Heaven. ~~~~~~~~ “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:5-7 KJV |
