seeyouagain

Without context, this sounds unremarkable: I've dreamt every dark this week.  I'm sure millions of people dream every night. Only because I tin count on one hand the number of dreams I've had in the past few years, this week of dreams is unusual. Dreams are strange. No one actually knows why we dream or what, if anything, they mean. Dreams may provide some insight into how we call up and what's on our center, but virtually of the time dreams don't tell u.s.a. much of anything. But every so often, a dream is a real blessing.

I've had a week of blessings. Friends who have been separated from me- through altitude, disagreements, or expiry- have visited me in my dreams this week. The dreams follow a similar script: I walk into a room and encounter an old familiar face. We await at each other for a moment before erupting into laughter every bit we embrace. We excitedly share everything that's happened in our life as though we would outburst if we kept these things in any longer. The exhilaration and the urgency to share everything that has happened in our lives reminded me of how C.S. Lewis described heaven in The Problem of Pain:

Heaven is a metropolis, and a Body, considering the blessed remain eternally different: a society, considering each has something to tell the others- fresh and ever fresh news of the 'My God' whom each finds in Him whom all praise as 'Our God.' For doubtless the continually successful, notwithstanding never complete, effort past each soul to communicate its unique vision to all others (and that by means whereof art and philosophy are but clumsy imitations) is besides amongst the ends for which the individual was created.

Now, if these reunions had taken place in heaven, I'm sure we would take focused on more lofty things than what nosotros discussed in my dreams. But, I believe the emotions felt in the reunion are glimpses of what will be experienced in heaven. C.South. Lewis conjectured that each soul in heaven will express one aspect of God better than any other, providing something new and unique to heaven. The eternal revelation and discovery of God will be so thrilling we won't be able to keep it to ourselves. Heaven will exist a continual sharing of our feel of God with others.

We can't fathom what abiding, perfect union with God and others for all eternity will be like, since it doesn't exist here. Not just will our dear exist more than intense and pure than it ever could exist here, but in that location volition be no pain associated with love. There will exist no sting of rejection, no more tears of parting, no more than harsh words, no more misunderstandings, no more awkwardness, no more than unrequited affection, no more risk. Authentic dearest is intertwined with pain because information technology requires cede. Besides that, even in the closest relationships, whether nosotros intend to or non, hurting one some other is inevitable. Nosotros are imperfect people who love imperfectly, and imperfect beloved hurts:

To dearest at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly exist wrung and perhaps be broken… The only place exterior Heaven where you tin can be perfectly rubber from all the dangers and perturbations of honey is Hell.

– C.South. Lewis, The Four Loves

Because love cannot be forced but only given freely, in that location is no guarantee the person you honey will respond with the same intensity or in the fashion you would hope. Fifty-fifty the best relationships are subject to the "secret from which one never quite recovers":

"Even in the most perfect dearest ane person loves less greatly than the other. There may be two every bit good, equally gifted, as cute, but there may never exist ii that love one another equally well." –The Span of San Luis Rey

This imperfection in relationships is painful. Because we are created in the image of God, we remind each other of God, whether we are conscious of this or not. Simply, because none of u.s. are God, trying to put someone in God's place leads to dissatisfaction and loneliness in our relationships. Flannery O'Connor expressed this frustration in her prayer journal, "I do not want to exist lonely all my life only people only brand usa lonelier past reminding us of God."

St. Therese said she "found only bitterness" in her friendships here on earth. She considered that to be a blessing because it prevented her from putting some other person in God's place. Through the pain of being misunderstood she came to realize that only God could understand her and encounter her desires.

My sensitive and loving heart would have easily given itself away if information technology had found another heart capable of understanding it. How I thank Jesus for making me find just 'bitterness in the friendships of this world' … How tin can a heart that is given over to the affection of created beings be intimately united with God?

In heaven, our relationships with God and each other volition be perfectly ordered. We will love each other more than intensely, but in a fashion that only serves to deepen our love of God. At that place volition be no more loneliness in relationships, since our loneliness on globe is due to our separation from the I we were created for. Since nosotros will be in constant union with God in heaven, loneliness will be impossible.

Every person I saw in my dreams this week is someone who I have no hope of seeing again in this life. It seems to me that most friendships are meant to concluding for only a season in life, and a lifelong friendship is a rare blessing. The joy I felt in the dreams is only a taste of the joyful heavenly reunion. Not only will we meet again, but in heaven, we will have all eternity to repair and perfect our relationships. To exist reunited with and to be reconciled with those who have left me in bitterness helps dull the sting of separation. It's comforting to know that no matter how badly we may have failed in a relationship, information technology has a chance to be redeemed. All our shortcomings in relationship, all the hurts we've acquired others, volition one day be rectified, if not in this life so in the next. "Behold, I brand all things new" (Rev. 21:5)

Sometimes I'm overwhelmed with gratitude when I call up about all the things people take done for me throughout my life – things that I didn't deserve and tin't ever repay washed by people who I never had a run a risk to properly give thanks. I'm sure there are many others who accept done things for me, such as prayers and sacrifices, that I won't know nigh until heaven. St. Therese expressed similar feelings in her autobiography, and drew comfort in the hope that all things volition be made new in heaven:

I was similar an idiot… no one ever acquired you as much problem every bit I, and no one always received as much love every bit you bestowed on me. Happily, I shall have sky to avenge myself, for my Spouse is very rich and I shall draw from His treasure of love to repay you lot a hundredfold for all you suffered on my account.

Writing about this is difficult because I fear when I talk about heaven like this that it tin can exist interpreted equally a kind of fatalism: The earth is broken, and this isn't my true home anyway, and so improving it is a waste of time. Friends come up and become, and so why bother having any now when I can make every bit my heart desires in heaven? Why bother trying to repair damaged relationships if they'll be repaired effortlessly in heaven?

I am non saying that friendship on world is unimportant, or that holiness means friendlessness, or that we shouldn't piece of work hard to repair, maintain, and deepen our relationships with others. One reason the dreams I had were such a blessing was considering it reminded me of the hope I have that relationships that are irreparable in this life tin be repaired in the side by side. I believe that friendship is i of God's greatest gifts and one of the all-time ways He makes His love for us tangible. The friendships we brand hither on earth will affect how nosotros experience heaven. The deeper our relationships with people hither on earth, the more people we bear on, the sweeter sky will exist.

And though they are all joined in the bond of charity, they know a special kind of sharing with those whom they loved most closely with a special love in the world, a honey through which they grew in grace and virtue…Then at present in everlasting life they take not lost that honey; no, they however love and share with each other fifty-fifty more closely and fully, adding their dearest to the good of all

(Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena)

This life is just brief stop along the way to our eternal home. We should practice what we can to improve life here and to exist a friend to others, keeping in heed that our purpose is to reach eternal union with God and assistance others reach that marriage too. The fundamental purpose of our relationships on world is to deepen our most of import human relationship: with God.

There are so many people I've met in this life I wish I could take a closer relationship with, but can't for ane reason or some other. We may find ourselves in different places and accept to focus on those obligations immediately around u.s.. At that place'south only so much time, energy, and resources we've been given, and sadly some relationships fall to the wayside because of that. It's comforting to know that we will have eternity to perfect the relationships we've started on world: from those nosotros were closest to, to those we were merely acquainted with.

Truly it is a blessed thing to love on earth as we hope to love in Heaven, and to begin that friendship here which is to suffer forever there.

-St. Francis de Sales

Several years ago, I was waiting with i of my dear friends at the aerodrome, who was virtually to leave to start a new life overseas. As nosotros embraced to say adieu, knowing that we were going in different directions and would take limited contact with each other,  she simply said, "I'thou glad at that place'southward heaven…"

Me also.