Trying to Imagine by Chad Hess

I am always amazed that God can speak to me through anything, whether it is a sermon, a friend, a movie, a piece of music, a donkey, or anything He chooses.  So I was a little surprised to hear God speaking to me through the music of a very irreligious and sometimes offensive Broadway play, The Book of Mormon.  Let me clarify that I do not condone this play, nor advocate its theology.  But as I said before, God can speak to us through anything.

The play is about two Mormon missionaries who go to Uganda to convert the people who live there.  There is one song by one of the villagers who becomes a Mormon where she imagines the paradise of Salt Lake City.

I can imagine what it must be like

This perfect, happy place

I’ll bet the goat-meat there is plentiful

And they have vitamin injections by the case

The war-lords there are friendly

They help you cross the street

And there’s a Red Cross on every corner

With all the flour you can eat!

Let me reiterate that I understand this is an inaccurate and insensitive stereotype of Africans that I do not condone.  But it is also the most vivid illustration I've found for our misperceptions of heaven.  1 Corinthians 2:9 says “No one has ever seen this, and no one has ever heard about it. No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 

We imagine what heaven will be like, but we do so from the context of what we know.  The woman in this play dreams of a place where there are cases of vitamin injections because she can't fathom food so plentiful and nutritious that vitamin injections are not necessary. 

We dream of what heaven will be like.  But the reality is that heaven will be immeasurably more than the greatest dream we can imagine.  What a wonderful day that will be when our Savior leads us home and we discover the place that He has prepared for us.

Chad Hess