Your Place in Heaven

I’ve posted before about angels who go to the lower levels of heaven being content with their place, since they are as happy as they can be and don’t wish to be in the higher heavens.  I was having a conversation about this recently, and another thought struck me that helped me picture the attitude these angels probably have.

Imagine if someone told you that your children would be happier, stronger, more loving people than you.  Imagine if they told you that your children would be closer to the Lord than you were able to be in your life.  How would you feel about that?  Disappointed?  Cheated?  I doubt it.  You’d probably be immensely grateful.  If we’re told that our children will go to a higher heaven than we will, it does not seem unfair – we just feel honored that we were able to play some small part in helping them there (or at least that’s how I think I would feel, realizing that I don’t actually know what it’s like to have kids).  (And leaving aside any disappointment over not living in the same place – there are passages in the Writings about friends from different heavens meeting and embracing each other, but that’s a whole nother discussion.)

If we were truly angelic, we’d have that same sort of love for EVERYONE that a parent has for a child.  I’ve realized that I’m actually pretty bad at picturing what it would feel like to REALLY love others more than myself all the time.  When I think in those terms, it makes sense in my mind that lower angels would be happy for the higher angels, but I have a hard time actually relating to that as a real feeling.  Picturing it in terms of a parent with a child, though, it makes sense emotionally as well as intellectually.