The Elevator Analogy

Ceiling painting of Christ and his apostles

Our minds can understand vast distances.  We can take in, for instance, the fact that the stars are farther away than the moon and that the various parts of the earth are even closer.  We have been programmed and downloaded with the ability to understand physical distances.  We know that some things are closer than others.

We were given our basic awareness of physical distances to symbolize another, more important knowledge that we have;   awareness of the distance between good and evil.  We know the difference between being pro-life and pro-death.  We realize there is a wide gap between sin and obedience.

We Want to Leave the Elevator at the Highest Possible Floor

Our soul’s moving around in our mind may be visualized as an elevator in building.  The building is tall.  It reaches from magma in the basement to the mud at ground level and rises above the clouds.  When we think about sin, our soul is in the building’s lower levels.  When we think about loving and obeying God, our elevator is proportionately higher in the skyscraper.

When we die, we leave the building at the level we’re on at the time.  We may assume that we spend eternity at that level, whether in burning magma, cold mud, or in the clean, clear air above.  Souls spend eternity where their minds lived on earth.

It pays to keep our elevator as close to the top of the building that we can. We want to leave the elevator at the highest possible floor.  Staying close to God in this life puts us with Him in the next.

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