Heaven Sounds Enticing

I’m not afraid to die. I am quite certain that while I may be a little upset at an untimely death – for example leaving my children while they are young, or dying on “one of those days” where I have committed a more than minor trespass – I know my spirit will live on and hopefully I will end up at a fabulous after-death location (optimistically, heaven). I know there are people and places I will miss, but ultimately, I think heaven sounds practically perfect.

In my picturesque heaven there is NO STUFF. All those scriptures intended to hound all of us “natural men” with threats of not being able to bring all of our earthly treasures with us... those only entice and tease me with visions of life after death.

I consider myself a fairly organized person, but apparently I’m not very good at hide and seek. I give up, where do all you people with perfect homes (you know who you are) keep all of your STUFF! Your homes are spotless with no remnant of too small clothes or grown-out-of toys, and yet they have to be somewhere – one of you just had a new, and might I mention fourth, baby and she looks gorgeous in all that clothes you’ve been storing somewhere. This is an ongoing battle for me.

This past week we attacked a plethora of “projects”. Several of which consisted of reorganizing, moving and storing our STUFF in different spots of our house. We have gotten to the point where we feel like maybe we need a bigger house just to store all of our stuff. Perhaps a storage unit or a shed in the backyard filled with rubbermaids jam packed with STUFF. I have donated, sold and given away more stuff than I can count, and really, I feel like we need a lot of the stuff that we’re holding onto. I say that only half believing it since I just survived a summer in a two-bedroom hotel with very little stuff. I realize now how little we truly need, and yet we use a lot of it a lot. Does this designate a need? Are we the only family with stuff brimming over? Do any of you hang “Open with Caution” signs on your closet doors? Does anybody else out there wish they could just gut everything and start all over collecting stuff, but this time try to collect less stuff and store and house it more effectively?

I guess I’m at a point where I’d gladly trade my stuff for a place in heaven. My only worry is that after I die I enter a heaven where as heavenly beings we accumulate heavenly chattels and possessions. Maybe that’s why we’re warned we can’t bring any of our earthly treasures with us – they want a fresh start up there too!