"You know one of the best things about heaven?" My son, Vince asked me.
""What?" I replied. I know a lot of good things about heaven, but Vince's mind doesn't always come up with the same sort of things that I would think of.
"Poison Ivy and Poison Oak won't make us itch in heaven!" Vince answered, very seriously.
"Oh," I said. I've heard discussions of whether or not dogs and cats go to heaven, but never whether or not there will be poison ivy there. I guess I always just thought it wouldn't be. Just like ticks and mosquitoes won't be there either.
But Vince is right. If there is Poison Ivy in heaven, it won't make us itch.
There were many effects of the fall in the Garden of Eden and most of them have to do with nature working differently than it was intended. Insects carry diseases and bite and sting us and certain plants make us itch. Lots of other things have changed and none of them for the better. Disease wasn't a problem before then and now it clearly is.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks of heaven and says "Behold, I am making all things new." (21:5). Maybe this is speaking of completely new species of plants and animals, but to me, it is more a statement of a re-creation of what Creation was first intended to be -- a place of beauty, peace, and perfection, a place where everything goes according to God's plan and there is no sin.
That is what heaven is to me. While I don't know the names of all the plants that will be there, what I do know is that everyone of them will serve its purpose perfectly.
Even Poison Ivy (if it really is there).
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