“Every community in heaven is growing in numbers daily, and the more it grows, the more perfect it becomes. In this way … heaven in general is perfected … since these communities constitute heaven. Heaven’s ever-increasing fullness makes it more perfect. So angels long for nothing more than to have new angel guests arrive there.” Heaven and Hell 71

So many, many people have died since Covid-19 knocked the whole world off balance. Some say these Covid deaths were ‘before their time’, but I think they’ve just been part of achieving the Lord’s ultimate purpose – for heaven to grow and be more perfected. 

The Lord knows when it’s the right time for each one of us to move from this world to the next. It does not happen until that time, regardless of how it seems, or how hard it is for those left behind.

Are these deaths opportunities, offered by the Lord, for people in this world to find belief in a higher purpose? To discover humility? To find strength to keep going? To encourage them to choose hope rather than despair in their approach to such deep things? 

Does our world need more guidance from the innocence of wisdom carried back to heaven by the ‘excess deaths’ of so many older people? Is that a reason why so many have died? Is it because in this world we need a lot more of the subtle influence they will provide from the next world, to increase our own willingness to follow the Lord’s leading? 

In one of her Marriage Moats, Lori Odhner declared ‘I believe in heaven with an unshakable faith. But getting there seems a mite scary.’ Death is HARD for those left behind. Bereavement is a long, long upsetting road to travel – it’s lonely, and it’s sad. Luke Goss (UK musician and actor) seemed to ‘get it’ when he said this: ‘Meditation and prayer have soothed my grief greatly. I don’t think of death; it’s not how I see things. My mother, sister and grandfather have transcended to a better place. One day I will, too. Faith gives me humility when I look upon my brief flicker here. It doesn’t negate the pain, but it helps me walk through it.’

It’s not my place to insist that people believe what I believe. Their spiritual journey is theirs. So what do I do with all my reassuring belief? If the things I trust in so greatly could help, surely I have some responsibility to share that knowledge? How do I do that? I’m not in a position to tell many about it. Is it enough to help where I can, within my own sphere of influence? Perhaps I should heed the last two lines of Amanda Gorman’s striking Inauguration Day poem: ‘For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.’

“In my father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2