Learning to Float

Perhaps heaven is a little like learning to float.

You step into a world

that does not follow the rules you understand.

The ground is gone.

The instincts that once kept you safe

no longer apply.

In water,

everything you learned on land feels wrong.

You try to hold yourself up.

You kick and reach

And struggle to stay on the surface.

But floating begins

Only when the struggle stops.

You lean back.

You let the water take the weight

You have always carried yourself.

At first, it feels risky,

Like surrender.

Until the world grows quiet

And far away.

Slowly you discover a new truth.

The water was ready to hold you

All along.

Perhaps heaven is like that.

We arrive with habits learned in gravity.

Control.

Effort.

Self-reliance.

We believe we must keep ourselves

From sinking.

But here, too, we must relearn the world.

Trust instead of striving.

Surrender instead of grasping.

Rest instead of holding everything together.

And maybe we are taught gently.

A steady hand beneath the back.

A quiet voice saying,

Lean back.

Let heaven carry you.

You do not have to keep yourself afloat anymore.

Even those of us

Who never learned to float

In this life

May learn to in the next.

We will lean back into eternity

And discover that

God was ready to hold us

All along.