One day God visited a special old saint. "You have been a faithful
follower of mine all these years," God said. "Is there anything that still
puzzles you about my kingdom?"
"Yes," the saint confessed. "Although I have read all of the words of
Scripture, I still have no idea what heaven and hell are like. I would be
deeply grateful if you help me understand."
"Normally I do not answer questions that belong to the realm of
mystery," God said, "but since you have led such an exemplary life, I
will give you a preview of the world to come."
In the twinkling of an eye the woman was transported through time and
space until she found herself standing before the gates of hell. It was
not at all what she expected. As she walked through the magnificent black
gates, the old saint was struck with the beauty of the place. Ahead of
her she saw a huge banquet room with long tables filled with food. It was
the most delicious food she had ever seen.
All the residents of hell were seated about the tables. They all looked
normal except for one very important difference. All of the people had
very large arms, nearly six feet in length. At the end of each arm was a
fork, but the people were unable to eat because no one had an elbow. Even
though all of the food was so close at hand, they were unable to put the
forks into their mouths. The sounds of hell were not very pleasant, for
the people cried out in agony.
Suddenly the woman was transported to heaven. Ahead of her were
gleaming white gates. When she walked into the celestial city she was
surprised to see that things looked very much like they did in hell.
Ahead of her was a banquet table, quite similar to the one she had seen
moments before. The food looked amazingly similar.
As the woman walked closer to the table, she could see that people were
built identically to those in hell. All had long arms with no elbows, and
forks at the end. The sounds in heaven, however, were very different.
People were laughing and singing, for they found their long arms to be no
great disadvantage. Each person simply loaded his or her fork and then
reached out across the table to a friend. The situations were identical
except for this one thing: in heaven people fed each other.
