Heavenly Considerations

Because I don't have enough problems in life, I tend to make some up. Ever since I was a kid I've wondered about heaven. I do this in spite of having a firm and solid understanding of life after death as being living on a cloud in a world of pretty much white and gold.

When I got a bit older, although how much older it's hard to say, I began having troubles with my notion of this trouble-free afterlife. Leaving everything else aside, I began worrying about the logistics of heaven, and my limited, human understanding has created dilemmas only God can untangle.

A big question I have is with people's age and state in heaven. I'm not expecting any corporal bodies, mind you, but I can't imagine a heaven that would work for everyone involved.

Will my parents, when I meet them in heaven, be as old as they were when they died? That might work for me, but I don't think it's the way they'd want to be for all eternity. Maybe they'd rather spend eternity being thirty or so, like I would.

There ideal life, which I'm guessing is what heaven would have, may be when all their kids are children, when we were all together. That would make me about six, say, and I'm not sure my idea of heaven would meet up with that.

I may want to be in my thirties and married, a great time in my life, but what if my ex has an idea of heaven that doesn't include me at all? What if one of my past girlfriend's notion of heaven includes me as a lifelong partner? Do I have to stay with her, even if I don't particularly care for her?

There is, it seems to me, too many possible conflicting ideal lives. I'm willing to grant God the ability to sort them all out, maybe using some utilitarian principle, but I can't imagine any heaven that isn't as full of compromises as it is harps.