When the train finally pulls into the station, who will be the happiest?

There are a few possibilities. One is the person finishing a long journey, expecting to reunite with a loved one. Another is the person waiting on the platform for the arrival of a loved one.

I like the stories that could be built around these possibilities.

The saddest situation would be a person finishing a long journey who arrives to find no one. I stumbled upon the analogy while thinking of a few of my atheist friends. They don't think anyone is waiting. They don't even think there's a train or station.

I recently mentioned this to a student who works in our department at the college. This student traveled in a group of students who went with me to Greece last year. One of the really good things about the college work program is faculty become acquainted with students over a number of years. It gives us time to talk about whatever is on our mind.

On this morning, as the student poked her head into my office to say hi, I was thinking about railway platforms. She said, "Good morning," but eventually sat down as I tried to explain the analogy.

I mentioned how sad atheism seemed to me. No hope. No expectations. This is it. What you see is what you get. I guess that would be slightly okay if one had a great life, but most atheists I know aren't exactly riding prize horses.

So, I said, "What if we are making up our own eternity?" Sort of sweet and sour justice. This idea isn't even remotely scriptural, but it might be a worthwhile reflection anyway. It helps one explore hope.

This game has only one rule, "As one wishes, so be it." Justice is built in. One gets whatever they wish AND sees what God had prepared. So, if one is an atheist, he or she would get nothing or whatever it is atheists expect...and then see what God had planned. To summarize: one dark, lonesome hell with a balcony view of heaven.

If you build a mental paradise in which you are a ruler with wealth, power, vestal virgins, and whatever. That's what you get! However, you have to polish the gold, figure out how to make it rain to keep the plants alive (if you remembered plants), find water, keep all the vestal virgins happy, fight off those who want what you have...you catch my drift. Another hell with a view of something better.

After a few plays one begins to see it is best to try to imagine God's plan and wish for that. Sort of another take on Paschal. Every other play leaves you in a hell or paradise without the one who makes it all work and hang together. A few plays later one begins to experiment with how much one can hope and still stay in God's plan. I often play this game before I fall asleep at night.

One also realizes quite quickly that if "what you wish is what you get" were a reality, most Christians would be little better off than the average atheist in terms of expectations. How embarrassing would it be to get to heaven and not recognize God? God would probably say, "Yeah, we never talked much."

So, hell (at least to me) is on the other side of the fence from heaven, watching everyone have the time of their eternities..all the while knowing one COULD have had it. I can't imagine anything worse than being stuck with myself and my worldview for eternity. I'm glad I'm not in charge.

It's like this, for now: In this life rain falls on the just and unjust. Peaches grow for Mother Theresa and for Vlad the Impaler. This life as a jumping off place for the next one. Some may recall the song of Lazarus and the rich man. He's on "the other side" and begs Lazarus, "dip your finger in the water, come and cool my tongue, 'cause I'm tormented in the flames..." Jesus told this story.

So, what about heaven? Hopes of heaven, theoretically, might include anything conceivably in harmony with God's character. Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven all the time. Kingdom of Heaven this, Kingdom of Heaven that. He also said he was going ahead to "prepare a place" for us. Revelation talks about streets of gold, etc. Regardless of this life, there's nothing wrong about hoping. I've heard the argument we should quit worrying about the future and live now. I agree, but I continue think ahead and pay my electric bill so I'll have power next month.

I've traveled a lot. Streets of gold or cobblestones are all the same to me. What makes a place are the people and whether you feel like you belong or not. In my hopes of heaven I see myself living in God's house (today it's a Tudor two-story; horses in the pasture south of the waterfall) with all those I love filled full of God. When I see my father and Uncle Jim, I see God in my father and Uncle Jim.

God and I will sit with friends and family by a warm fire with snow gently falling outside. Starbucks coffee and cinnamon twists. The snow will be shoveled and the temps mild when we go outside to look at the waterfall before sunset. Sunsets can happen on the hour and one can have spring in the morning and autumn in the evening. There will be a soundtrack. The music will soften while we talk and reach breathless crescendos with each sunset. My dog, Duchess, will be there at God's feet. It'll be great if only two of these things happen.

The greatest thing is, God can imagine better than I can.

So, here's my new game: Can I wish a greater good than God? Can I hope at a level even God will find interesting?

Here's my best try so far: I hope everyone who ever lived finds grace and has a heaven better than mine.

Of course this is mostly nonsense. Mostly. But it has gotten me thinking near God-sized thoughts. I'm starting to hope more than I used to. I'm a Christian. I believe we arrive at the final station through the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

I think about those without hope. I'm starting to think about those verses in Romans that talk about Christ's death being as powerful as Adam's sin. Through Adam's sin all fall short; through Christ's death all...maybe...

There is one more platform story. The last is a person who expects no one, but is surprised by someone.