Slices of Heaven...

I was at Pizza House today, eating one of my favorite calzones, and it tasted so good, it made me think of what Heaven must be like. Now, I am not saying heaven must be full of pepperoni and cheese calzones floating on clouds and you can just reach out and take a bite any time you want (although, Italian food fans must agree, that would be pretty sweet). But I know there have been many ideas passed down through generations of what Heaven must be like. There are those who think we who believe in Jesus will just stand inside the Pearly Gates and sing Hymns of praise to the Lord for eternity. There are also those who believe that everyone will have their own version of Heaven rewarded to them, where they will be in a place where everything will be hunky-dory, and they will be able to roam free and do whatever makes them feel happy. Well, I think Heaven will be a little bit of both. I have a theory that came to me as I was cutting up a little slice of my calzone; I think throughout life God gives us little slices of Heaven while we are here on Earth, to give us a little peak of the Joy of heaven. I think God wants us to know what it is like to thoroughly enjoy some things so much, that we appreciate him for them. I think these little slices of Heaven can be similar to the second idea I mentioned about how everyone will have their own version of Heaven. My slices of Heaven here on Earth are instances such as: when my six year old gives me a bear hug after not getting to see his daddy all day while he was at work;
when my wife hugs and kisses me after some big chore gets done that she couldn't do without me;
when I lift more weight in the weightroom than I have ever done before;
when something I have been dreading at work actually turns out way better than I planned;
when something extraordinary happens for my parents or my brothers;
when my son scored his first touchdown in flag football;
when my son scored his first hat trick in soccer;
and of course when I eat a calzone that tastes so good, it inspires me to write.
The list could go on and on, but the point I am trying to make is that these slices of Heaven that we get while we are living our mortal lives are just small samples of the feeling of elation we will have once we are finally in Heaven with our Creator. We will have such a feeling of happiness and Joy just seeing that God kept his promise, that we will want to sing eternal praises to Him. Of course, if I am wrong, all I have to lose is Hope. But if I am right (and I will only be right if the Bible is true), then there are a lot of people who will unfortunately lose a lot more than just hope.
Either way, I guess we all better enjoy our little slices of Heaven while we can.