64 - Is there life in the heavens?

                                                  Kyle in Scotland on a school tour. He was
                                                    always trying to make people laugh.

     In Sunday school I learned there's a heaven and that all God’s children came from heaven, but I don’t remember any pastors teaching that there is actual life in heaven after we die, and I don’t mean once there is the great rapture.  I had a few experiences, which made me wonder if there was life in heaven. Maybe, not the exact life as we know it here on earth. But after Kyle passed, and my mother and stepfather, I have no doubt in my mind that there is a gorgeous, peaceful place way up there in the heavens where spirits live a tranquil existence.      

   I remember at age 5 or 6; I was furious with my dad for yelling for who knows what. All I wanted to do was escape from his anger. When my brothers and I were outside playing, I ran up the hill behind our apartment complex in Wiesbaden, Germany.  I looked up at the clear blue sky, and through tears, I said, “I want to go back home.”  My heart thumped a few times against my chest. It actually hurt. I felt so lonely and again had this strange feeling that I didn’t belong on this planet.  I don’t know why this memory stayed with me my whole life. But  I never wondered why I said something so strange.  All I knew is that I wanted to return to heaven.  Isn’t that strange?  

   Then years later, Nicole, our daughter, was about two when one day she started vehemently correcting us. “No, no, call me Crystal.”  
   Alan and I cracked up. I told Alan that I wondered where this all of a sudden came from. I asked at her daycare if there was someone there called ‘Crystal,’ but that was a, ‘No.’   Where the heck had she heard that name?
   And then I remembered my experience when I was a little girl, feeling like I had lived up in heaven before. I told Alan maybe she remembers her name from a previous life, and he said, "I don't think so."   I suggested to the whole family that we call her Crystal, so we did, when we remembered.       Nicole wouldn’t get super mad when we’d forget, but that little girl was insistent! I think that lasted not quite a year and then she either got tired of correcting us, or she finally accepted that her new name was Nicole.

   But often after Kyle passed away, I would look up at the sky, especially at the moon and wish I was home again. Weird, huh?  

    Here’s a journal entry from 2010.  Kyle finally trusted that I’d be okay without him staying earthbound, so he had fully crossed over. He was now up in heaven.  I learned that the energy up in heaven runs much faster, so Kyle had to learn to slow his energy down so he could talk to me. (Sometimes you might hear a buzzing in your ear after someone close passes to the other side. Tell him/her to slow down so you can understand what he or she is trying to say.)

JOURNAL:  November 24, 2010

   Sometimes I ask Kyle what he’s been up to and one day he tells me, “Today, I’m learning about compassion.” Sunday seems to be a day that he’s really occupied because I have a difficult time reaching him. He says he’s able to go to all these different types of teaching where he learns spiritual lessons. I reminded him that he hated going to Sunday school when he was on the earth, and he reminded me, “I’m not on earth anymore.”  Usually, by the evening, he’s easier to reach.

   About a month ago, Kyle came to me so excited, “Mommyyouwere…………..”

  “Kyle, Kyle, you have to slow down, I can’t understand you.” This has been common the last few months since he crossed over, he speaks too quickly.

   “Mom, you were right. There’s a heaven! It’s so gorgeous here. I’ve met Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa. (I don’t even think he’d ever heard of Mother Teresa.) You wouldn’t believe all the people.  I’ve talked to" He sounded so excited.  "I get to take workshops and learn lessons. It’s so peaceful here.”

   He had problems believing there was a God once he hit his late teens and now he’s listening to and meeting all these fantastic spiritual teachers. I’m so happy for him.
   He even told me that his Grandpa Boivin met him and they would go on long walks together for the first few months. He's met a few of our family members up there, including a dear friend of his that had committed suicide. 

   First, when Kyle shared some of his heavenly experiences, I was surprised that there was life up in the heavens. Honestly, I never thought about it. Yes, I remember some of the verses:  John 11:25 -

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live.  Or John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.   There are so many verses, but I thought our soul just floated around happily in heaven.

      But Kyle proved to me that there really is a peaceful, gorgeous spiritual home way up in the heavens, and that made me feel good, but most of all, I stopped being afraid of death.  

    About a year after his death, I asked him what he does up there, and he told me that he helps people who have passed away suddenly: people who were in a car crash, or shot, or had drug or alcohol incidents. I guess that makes sense since he died of an overdose. He must have been baffled about where he was and worried about how his death would affect his friends and us since it was so sudden.  He shared that he teaches them how to accept where they were.