A friend recently forwarded this website to me. http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com/Home_Page.html Is this for real? It seems that some atheists would like to capitalize on those Christians who believe that animals won't be a part of the Rapture. I hope my cats aren't because they only want to be picked up by me. I sort of hope the Rapture is more of a perspective on ancient cosmology and not current science because I hate to think of having to travel all the way into outer space.
Something tells me that the Rapture concept may have been more metaphorical than actual, based on ancient knowledge of "where" heaven "is" in the sky. I don't believe that God is "in the clouds" or at some physical location to which we will be lifted. I think God is in a place that is indescribable in human terms. Hence I think is the reason why the ancients struggled with the right words to describe Resurrection Day. I don't think this is a day that any of us can fully grasp or describe in human language. But when I look at my cats, Misty and Periwinkle, or at Merle's dogs: Roe, Buddy and Smokey, I know that they were created in the image of God too. I don't think humans are the only members of God's good earth who bear the mark of the Holy. Sometimes they even suffer at the hands of humans, and so did Jesus. We misunderstand them most of the time, interpreting their behavior in terms of our human perspective, forgetting that animals also show forth truths beyond our ken. I have sometimes wondered if they are angels, even, because my pets have often reminded me of what is important in life, that working and doing things isn't the end all, be all of living. We get so busy doing things we forget to just BE. Animals teach me that. I have to sometimes stop myself and not do, do, do. I have to just be, be, be.
The "Eternal-Earthbound Pets" company hopes they will make $110 per pet per Christian. But I have a feeling my cats will enter heaven more easily than I!
Jurgen Moltmann gives us an entirely different perspective on the afterlife, which is found in his book, "In the End...The Beginning." There, he challenges those ancient perspectives that said that heaven is "up" and hell is "down." He also challenges "when" and "how," with the perspective that God is outside of our ideas of days, hours, minutes and seconds. We confess that God is actually the Creator and Sustainer of these time periods, so therefore not bound by them. Many of my fellow Christians believe that God cannot be bound by the very things that were created by her, for as it says in Genesis, God set lights in the sky to mark out those periods of time. For these reasons and others, Moltmann invites one to wonder whether we have the wrong idea about what to expect when we die. Rather, he suggests that whe we die, there is no "waiting period" until such a Rapture happens and perhaps instead it's a direct trip to God. If Moltmann is right, then he may have found a way to reconcile the issues between Rapture/waiting for the resurrection and the stories that we hear from people who have had near-death experiences in which they feel like they are headed for God already.
On another note, it has been a busy, busy time. I have been working for a charter school in SW Albuquerque lately through the temp agency, but that ended today. I think they want me to come back next month, on September 25th, but I hope that I find something permanent before then. I do want to keep in touch with them because it is such a neat school. I would like to be considered for chaplaincy work in schools as well as healthcare because I am particularly interested in the chance to work with youth and families, particularly with youth as the focus. I am concerned about teenagers who become labeled as "troublemakers" by their families, when what is needed is a deeper level of listening to the dysfunction in the family system, not so much blaming the kid for everything that he or she does.
I have hope that I might get a job I recently applied for as a chaplain in the oncology department at a hospital here. I hope you might pray that I get it. I really need a regular job for at least a year so I can recover from the crappy financial situation I have had for a while now. I have to do some serious economic recovery over the next year. Well, it's time that I get going. I have to see Merle. He's been helping one of the kids in our youth group by recording a song this kid wrote and the song is pretty good! I am really impressed with this young man and think he will go places.
Sorry it took so long to write. I won't promise to write again soon, but I want to. Peace to you.
Amy
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