We are unconditionally loved by a God who gives us the freedom to make choices. Come close or back away? Quiet to stillness or busy into more, more, more? Listen well or refuse wise counsel? At every decision point, day after day, the LORD allows us to choose God’s higher, heavenly ways of joy, love, peace or to choose the lower, human ways of anger, worry, division. Invited into intimacy, we can either listen to the living LORD or refuse God’s magnetic pull. An attentive heart can receive a holy message …when I give you a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you speak. Then you will say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’ Those who choose to listen will listen, but those who refuse will refuse… Ezekiel 3:27 (NLT).

In his 12.16.15 daily meditation, Henri Nouwen clarifies, “Often hell is portrayed as a place of punishment and heaven as a place of reward. But this concept easily leads us to think about God as either a policeman, who tries to catch us when we make a mistake and send us to prison when our mistakes become too big, or a Santa Claus, who counts up all our good deeds and puts a reward in our stocking at the end of the year. God, however, is neither a policeman nor a Santa Claus. God does not send us to heaven or hell depending on how often we obey or disobey. God is love and only love. In God there is no hatred, desire for revenge, or pleasure in seeing us punished. God wants to forgive, heal, restore, show us endless mercy, and see us come home. But just as the father of the prodigal son let his son make his own decision (Luke 15:11-32) God gives us the freedom to move away from God’s love even at the risk of destroying ourselves. Hell is not God’s choice. It is ours.”

God has designed us all for heaven, loving intimacy, divine oneness. At its core, hell is separation from God and we are free to choose divided, discouraged, disconnected. As we rush through the day, with Christmas less than a week away, how might we choose a little heaven right this very minute?

“But, my people…
you refused to listen,
and you would have nothing
to do with me!
So I let you be stubborn
and keep on following
your own advice.
My people…
if only you would listen
and do as I say!” Psalm 81:11-13 (CEV),

Sue