Real Hope: Back to Basics - Heaven & EarthSample

The Long Spoons

An old Jewish parable called the Allegory of the Long Spoons shows the difference between heaven and hell. The parable speaks of two tables, one in heaven and one in hell. Each table is full of delicious food, and everyone seated around it has long spoons fastened to their arms. But the spoons are too long to reach their mouths. Those seated around the table in hell suffer, unable to lift the spoon to their mouth to feed themselves. Those in heaven realize that while they cannot feed themselves, the spoon is long enough to feed the person across from them, so by cooperating with each other and choosing to feed the other person, they, in turn, get fed by someone else whose spoon is long enough to reach them.

I’ve always loved this Jewish parable. To me, it’s a beautiful image of the line in the Lord’s prayer where He instructs us to pray, ‘On earth as it is in heaven.' We often think of heaven as somewhere we will eventually arrive and everything will be ok. And while this is true, I don’t think it’s the only way Jesus wants us to think of heaven. He instructed us to pray, ‘On earth as it is in heaven,' which means it’s possible to experience heaven on this side of our earthly life. While heaven will be more than we can imagine, the Allegory of the Long Spoons provides a glimpse of what heaven on earth could look like – serving others and, by doing so, we are served.

How might you bring heaven to earth today?

Written by NERI MORRIS