I heard a story, an old wives tale about Hell a long time ago and then it showed up in a book I read a few weeks back. Hell was this beautiful dinner gathering full of people sitting around a table. The table was round and filled with really really hungry people. In this place each person has this unbearable hunger in their stomachs. The kind that leaves the space and noise around filled with a low grumble. It is the kind of hunger that causes food to smell better than it has ever tasted before and allows you to taste new subtle little flavors that you never knew were really there.
In the middle of this round table is a big cast iron cauldron filled to the brim of what smells like a meal for the gods. The cauldron is heated, and the stew is simmering with a small low boil. The aroma fills the room causing pain in everyone’s stomachs as they crave nothing more in the world but a taste of this heavenly stew.
Each person at the table has a special spoon crafted to their own hand. This spoon allows each individual to get the perfect amount of soup to quench their hunger and is exactly two inches too long to get into their own mouth. Everyone is seated around the table and they are trying their very best to feed themselves, but each time they take a spoonful of soup to their mouths, they miss and spill the soup all over themselves.
Hell
Heaven
In this story, heaven is the exact same place. Really really hungry people, with an unbearable hunger are sitting around the best meal you could ever imagine. Hunger rumbles in the bellies of each person at the table. And each person has a spoon crafted to their own hand, a spoon just a little bit too long to feed themselves. But instead everyone is feeding the person next to them and all are well fed.
Imagine that, heaven and hell, the same place. The only difference is how we treat one another.
A few years ago, I participated in an experience called the Global Village at the Heifer Camp in Perryville Arkansas. I was with a group of people and we drew straws that sent us to different sites that represented regions of the world. Some people ended up in Guatemala and had a rabbit, electricity, and even running water. The four people here had beds to sleep in and a house to keep warm. Another group ended up in Zambia and had access to firewood, a few vegetables, and some cornmeal. Zambia wasn’t quite as wealthy but still had some valuable resources. I was in the largest group which drew the slums. We ended up sleeping on a dirt floor tin shack in a storm that night and the only food we were given was a little bit of rice for all six of us in the slums. The idea of the project was to do a simulation to understand how resources are distributed in the world and to gain a better understanding of world poverty. We were told to use what we had and barter with the other groups to try and get something to eat. Water and firewood rights could even be bartered. I didn’t think it was fair and thought for sure I would go hungry just as so many of those who live in similar situations around the world do every day.
Something miraculous happened that night. Everyone shared all of their food and made one big stew. It wasn’t the best tasting, kind of bland but everyone was invited to attend and all ate and all were well fed. Our guide from Heifer was amazed, and had never witnessed this before. There was a good chance this happened because we were such a small group and realized that we could feed each other, but usually groups hoard the resources because they feel there is not enough to go around.
A friend of mine participated in this same simulation a year later. He was with a group that was a much larger group and he was placed in the refugee camp. He went hungry that night and didn’t even have access to safe drinking water. Guatemala had an unlimited amount of water, and he went thirsty. The experience for him was very transforming and painted a much more accurate picture of how the world really works.
Heaven vs. Hell
I love the image of the dinner table to help me understand how to help bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. This story is very real. We are all hungry and there is food right there in front of us. All we have to do is help feed the person at the next seat. We all have resources that we can share with each other and by reaching out in the world, recognizing that we are blessed and freely giving of the blessings we have, we can bring heaven to others.
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