A Taste of Heaven

I believe that much of the beauty and tastes that earthlings experience are preludes to full-course experiences awaiting us in heaven.

After the torrential rains and subsequent floods that devasted Raleigh County, West Virginia, I wondered if Dairy Queen on Black Eagle Road in Mullens, West Virginia still existed. I was surprised to find out that it is still there.  

My father got paid once a month mining coal mostly out of Amigo West Virginia in the late 50’s and early 60’s, and it was about once a month that he loaded our family in the car and took us to this Dairy Queen. I have never been excited about ice cream unless it had a piece of cake under it but I loved the family trips to this place.

In retrospect, we had a short time to be together because life would take us in vastly different directions.

After 21 years of coal mining, Dad left the area, he said, “to get us away from the coal mines”. He wanted more for us and we got more, but I must admit that whether it was a lot more is a matter of perspective because like a good piece of chocolate cake under hunks of vanilla ice cream life was pretty rich back then because the people were unimaginably rich in character. After Bible Study was over my brother said that if we told people about some of the crazy things that those people did, they would not believe it. We had our divisions. We had the Baptist versus the Pentecostals. We had the poor and we had the dirt-poor. We even had the people on the railroad track versus the rest of us and yet they knew how to come together and support one another to a place of wholeness. God never made better people. So, “more” becomes a matter of perspective.

We left Raleigh County and got good jobs: not better jobs but good jobs. We became professional nurses, psychologists, teachers, and historians. In other words, we left Raleigh County but a great deal of it never left me. That is why I shared at last evening’s Bible Study that I can hardly get thru a rendition of, “Blessed Be The Tie”, because it takes me back to memories like this one. It was like a taste of heaven.

“We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always pray without ceasing; Answers to Life’s Questions: What does it mean to “pray without ceasing in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ” (1 Thess. 5:1-18)