Peace, Time Travel, Animals in Heaven

World Peace

One thing that saddens me is people who need to live in countries that are prone to conflict and corruption. Yesterday, my country was Japan, and I was thinking how awful things were there back in the 1940s. But then, like Germany, it was totally transformed. But so many countries seem to be totally bogged down in conflict. Even Northern Ireland had difficulties from 1969 to 1998.

And of course, things were difficult in the Republic back in the earlier part of the 20th Century – and throughout Europe in the two wars. I only recently heard that my grandfather was injured at Gallipoli. Many Irish people fought in the British army in World War One. I do all my fighting in computer games 😀.

In the New Testament, you have three types of peace. Peace within, peace between people, and peace between humanity and God. So perhaps, I could wish for all types of peace in my first wish. That leaves me two wishes to use for myself 😀.

Time Travel

I like to spend time in Google Street View, particularly in an application called Wander on my Oculus 3s (a virtual reality headset). One setting that I enjoy using is the date. I can walk around Cork City and switch the date back to various settings. But it only goes back as far as 2008 or 2009. It’s fun to check out how things have changed. Now, maybe there’s someone awfully clever out there who could generate AI versions of Cork that go all the way back to 1900. Then, I could walk around Cork or anywhere else during any period in the 20th or 21st Century. Or maybe someone very clever could go right back through history. And even better, wouldn’t it be great to have the capacity to go anywhere and to any time. All of history is laid out before God. He is outside time. Time is part of creation. And some scientists and philosophers support theories suggesting that all periods of time (past, present, and future) exist simultaneously.

One related wish, that could be incorporated into my time travel is meeting myself as I was in younger years. Let’s say that I meet up for coffee with two earlier versions of myself. I sometimes think of that as a metaphor for the trinity. There are three of us, yet we are one. Like all metaphors, people can find fault with it. But it would be fascinating. I could switch between each “me” or maybe I could be all three at the same time. Even now, when I hear old songs, I feel like “me” as I was 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years ago.

Animals in Heaven

How would they all fit? Well even now, the universe is massive. The New Heaven and New Earth might be very different. Again, I don’t think that we should base our theology on hopes and dreams. But what’s wrong with stating what I’d like to happen? Now I’m not sure that I want spiders in heaven, but maybe we’ll see them differently there. Perhaps they’ll seem like ladybirds 😀. Or maybe we could put them on a spider’s paradise planet 😀.

Psalm 37:4
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Romans 8:19-21
¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Revelation 21:4
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”