Heaven is Here

God’s mercy is ever-present and always expanding within us.

He Himself has said that He desires all to be saved.

Even to our final breath He knocks—patient, pleading, waiting.

And when that last moment comes, when the soul stands at the edge between worlds, it must choose whether to leap toward the Light or to turn away into shadow.

That choice, God will not undo.

He has granted us the sacred freedom to love or to reject Him.

If we would not listen to His voice throughout our life, how shall we hear Him clearly in the final instant?

Let this humble us: the salvation of others is not ours to command.

Only God saves.

Yet even the soul that has lived its whole life in darkness—if at the last hour it throws itself into the arms of Christ—will find paradise.

Perhaps its heaven will seem dim beside the radiance of the saints, yet it will still be heaven, as it was for the thief who entered first.

It is a sorrowful joy when one spends a lifetime fleeing the Light, only to fall into it at the end.

And for those who do not prepare their souls within the life of the Church—though divine love still reaches them—it is far harder to heal outside the hospital of Orthodoxy.

So what remains for us?

To love.

To love with patience, without demand.

To love as intercession, not as control.

To love as Christ loved us—unto the end.