I have recently found myself giving renewed thought to what Heaven must be like. I challenged myself to think of things that I had not focused on before. It’s easy to reflect upon spending time with Jesus, your guardian angel, saints from the Bible, and reuniting with loved ones who had passed away. But, what else will be there?

I have always held this utopian hope of deep and long-lasting harmony among people on earth—not a harmony that is based on professional affiliations, schools attended, churches attended, or similar political ideologies. Rather, it is based on accepting people for who they are: God’s created beings that He loves with an everlasting love, and died to save.

Perhaps middle-aged realism (or apathy) has settled in. But now I think more and more of the New Jerusalem: a place where people aren’t judged on whether they are rich or poor, fat or skinny, Black or White, blue collar or white collar, uneducated or educated. I want to live in a place where people are genuinely accepted for who they are: sons and daughters of God.

But in order to prepare for that place, I need the Holy Spirit to come into my life every day, instilling these principles in my heart, and living out these principles in my professional, ecclesiastical, and societal relationships with others.

“Dear Lord and Father of mankind, live out Your life within me!”