More from the Lesser World

Today we went into the new church building and saw all of the people we've always seen, in fact more than usual. There's a wide open area where people can mingle. They call it Main Street.
In the service I looked around at all the usual faces, spread out further, harder to see. but still happy.
The first time i went in there, the greeter at the door was our late senior pastor's wife, who still attends with her new husband Richard. and it hit me. It was a little taste of heaven. Not because it was the most amazing building ever made or anything, but just because. One day we'll leave these shadows and find ourselves in the light, in the truest forms of what was represented on earth like Plato said. Sort of like leaving behind the old building with all of its fond memories and leaky pipes and broken tiles and flashy flourescent lights, walking into the splendor of newness. Instead of just seeing faces of the other people from church, it will be the Church of every age, all of those witnesses who went before us.
And there we'll see all of these faces of people--ones who we knew on the lesser world, whose flaws and moles and dark secrets are washed away, clothed in white. And the smiles will be real, and we'll be surrounded by unspeakable beauty and wonder, too vast to explore, more creative than we ever could create, more magical than we ever imagined.
And I think Pastor Ray (along with thousands of other amazing people we knew on earth) will be there at the door, smiling, giving hugs and saying, "Welcome home!"