Where did the Hate go?

I had a fascinating discussion last night with the Sr. High youth group about the idea of forgiveness. Through the different ideas we came across this question: "What happens to hate when we get to heaven?"

Think about that for a moment. It is a question that I had never thought about and it is a great topic for discussion. The immediate answer is "there is no hate in heaven" and that very well may be true but I am going to give you a scenario that may challenge that notion.

Let's say that someone kills your spouse, child, relative...a loved one. It is a violent death and the anger that wells up inside of you is overwhelming: you hate the person that committed this crime. It is a hard crime to get by and you find it impossible to ever forgive this person for what they did to your family member....it just is not going to happen. I, as a member of the religious community, comes to your house and leads you in discussions that are supposed to direct you in the direction of forgiveness....and they don't work. The words "I forgive you" will never be uttered from your mouth to the horrible criminal that murdered a member of your family.

That does not mean that the criminal who you "hate" so much will not be forgiven. We often forget that God supersedes all of us and He very much wants to forgive the mistakes that we make. If the criminal turns his life over to God and then asks for the forgiveness of his sins.....guess what.....he is forgiven. Which means that when you walk through the pearly gates of heaven there is a good chance that the very person you "hate", the very person who caused you such grief and heartache, will be standing there with you.

So let's ask the question again. "What happens to hate when we get to heaven?" There you are standing in glowing white light of heaven and staring back at you is the very person who you vowed would never receive your forgiveness........where is your hate now?

Now this is very much a philosophical question and I don't pretend to have the correct answer, but one of my youth (who will remain nameless for privacy) gave a pretty good statement on this issue. She started out by saying that to her hate is something that each of us posses in our hearts. It is a personal feeling that defines who we are. I may hate one thing and you may hate something else...which then dictates how we live our life and who we interact with. I had never thought of "hate" in this manner, but it makes sense to me. Many of the things that we all do in our life does indeed come from the fact that we either like or dislike something. Think about that for a second...."hate" literally shapes all that we do and say. Crazy.

This insightful teenager then said that since "hate" is a possession and that the Bible states that we essentially lose our possessions when we get to heaven.....it is conceivable that we actually lose the idea of "hate" once we walk through those gates.

I know...it boggles the mind...but it makes sense.

So there you stand staring at the person who caused you such pain in your earthly life and all you feel is.......Love?

What a surreal and unbelievable situation that would be....and to add more to the confusion....your loved one who was murdered....is standing there also. Whoa!! It makes you realize that many times we do not have a firm grasp on how God's love works. We tend to put our own belief systems into the mind of God, when in reality we should be allowing God's beliefs to enter into ours.

If you still want proof of the idea that God will forgive on an unbiased scale all you have to do is listen to the words of Jesus as he hung on the cross:

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Luke 23: 34

He said this to the very people who were trying to kill him on that fateful but glorious day. I am very certain that when those people walked through the gates of heaven, Jesus was standing there with his arms open wide.

Hate is a strong word and one that does tend to dictate how we live our daily lives. If we are going to lose hate when we get to heaven, maybe we should try and learn to live without it while we are living here on earth.

Just a thought.