We all do it.
When we think of God, or heaven, we look to the skies. Somehow we all feel that the spirit realm where we believe God resides, the heavenly home we hope to one day house our souls, is – “up there.” Strangely, it never occurs to us that “up” is a different direction at any moment in time.
And, we’re not alone.
It seems that throughout human history, humanity has always looked to the heavens for guidance, inspiration, hope and blessings.
It makes you wonder – is the impulse to look to the heavens some type of instinctual behavior? Is there a built-in knowledge that’s part of our makeup? Are we born with unspoken knowledge of a spiritual home that exists beyond our physical earthly neighborhood?
One element we might consider is the limitations of our human form. There is anecdotal evidence that there is a dimension of existence that is normally undetectable by conventional human senses. There are rare instances of a glimpse into a spirit realm that co-exists with our known physical realm.
Yet, as much as we might desire the ability to sense the spirit realm, most of us are handicapped by our own senses. The noise of our earthly existence drowns out the subtle signals of that other realm. As much as we might strain to connect with the spirit realm, it might be compared to hearing a whisper across a room where a brass band is rehearsing.
Yet, we instinctively look to the heavens.
We might also consider that we are trying to receive signals that are familiar to our senses, when those signals might be in a form that we don’t recognize – in fact, we don’t even have a name for those signals. Science has developed tools to extend the reach of our senses, yet those tools serve to magnify senses we already have. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to design a tool to magnify and translate a signal that we cannot identify.
Still, we instinctively look to the heavens.
Perhaps the answer is closely related to prayer. When we pray, we don’t shout loudly to the heavens, hoping to be heard above the din of the world. We pray silently or with a whisper, and we expect our thoughts to be heard. Again, instinctively, we are confident that our prayers are heard.
Perhaps, lacking any other indicator, we project our thoughts and beliefs outward, away from the the center of the earth. Perhaps the heaven we seek is not a place, but an unknown dimension, and merely a thought away.