I have this theory that God has a whacked sense of humor.
Think about all the energy we spend hating each other while we are alive.
Blacks and Whites, Shep and Bergsy, Rome and Carthage, Tupac and Biggie, Polish and German. Irish and English. Democrat and Republican, Catholics and Protestants, Cub fans and Sox fans.
We spend our lives building fences, flying flags, choosing sides, and deciding who belongs on the other side of the Monon tracks.
Then God looks down from Heaven and says, "You knuckleheads have no idea what is coming."
Because if His plan is true, eternity is going to be one giant family reunion.
The Polish guy will be sitting next to the German guy eating sausages. My ex-wife and I drinking coffee together. The Irishman will be saving a barstool for an Englishman. The Southsider and the Northsider arguing about what team Harry Carey liked better. While they are both enjoying Old Styles with Ron Santo and Minnie Minoso.
The people who spent their entire lives avoiding each other are suddenly neighbors for eternity. That seems like the biggest prank phone call ever made.
Imagine getting up to Heaven and finding out God put your eternal cloud right next to the person you spent eighty years being pissed off with.
“Lord, there must be a mistake over here.”
“No mistake,” says Jesus. “Pull up a chair. You two are family now.”
Maybe that is why forgiveness matters so much.
Maybe God isn’t asking us to forgive because the other person deserves it. Maybe He is asking because eventually we are all going to be breaking bread together anyway.
The older I get, the more I suspect Heaven is not a place where God separates the people who annoyed us. It is a place where He finally teaches us to love each other…
…. And if that is true, God definitely has one heck of a sense of humor.
