Are there dragons in Heaven?
Here’s a hint –
“Everything we know about you guys is wrong.”
Here’s another one –
Eats its victims… burns its victims… buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside- out… Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous… kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight…
The more complicated question – will you and I be there?
And of course – the trick question – what’s a dragon?
Probably not one of the burning questions of the day. (Pun not intended.) But maybe it should be?
Are there dragons in Heaven? Of course!
This one’s originally from July 2011. As usual – updates in rust colored italics.
I finally saw this movie a couple weeks ago – part of a free preview weekend from HBO. It made me cry – for a whole bunch of reasons. Two of which were related to dragons in Heaven.
Two of which were related to dragons in Heaven.
yes – two.
The first reason – if you’ve seen the movie – wouldn’t it be cool?
Riding dragons
Everyone always says that Heaven will be so much better than we can ever imagine.
I can imagine some really awesome things.
Quite honestly, streets of gold isn’t one of them. That’s not my thing. Going for a ride on a dragon – that would be awesome.
Too far fetched for you?
Consider this from Genesis 1:20- 31 –
Ge 1:20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
Ge 1:24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Ge 1:27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Ge 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Ge 1:29 Then God said, “I give you every seed- bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Ge 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
So God created all the creatures in the sea, the air, the land – and then created us.
And it was good – and by the sixth day it was very good.
But by the time Paul writes the book of Romans, we have in the NIRV interpretation of Romans 8:22 –
Ro 8:22 We know that all that God created has been groaning. It is in pain as if it were giving birth to a child. The created world continues to groan even now.
All this because of Adam & Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because of that we have Genesis 3:17- 24
Ge 3:17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
Ge 3:18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
Ge 3:19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Ge 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
Ge 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So what we see now – isn’t the way it was meant to be.
What we are now – isn’t the way we were meant to be.
“Everything we know about you guys is wrong.”
Everything we know about our world – is wrong – not the way it was meant to be.
So maybe what Hiccup said to Toothless –
“Everything we know about you guys is wrong.”
also applies to everything we think we know about everything around us – including ourselves.
Maybe there really are dragons in Heaven – and we can go for rides on them.
In the movie – we saw the dragons being drawn to the “monster dragon” in the nest . It had some sort of control over them – even Toothless fell right in with the flow of the other dragons – couldn’t help himself – had to go to the nest.
Kind of like us with Satan – we can’t help but do the wrong things sometimes.
But after the monster dragon in the nest was killed – the people and the dragons got along really well.
After Satan is thrown into the lake of fire – things will be very different.
Maybe more different than we normally consider. We generally think in terms of ourselves – people – without sin. That’s what it’s going to be like in Heaven.
How often do we think about what Paul actually wrote –
Ro 8:22 We know that all that God created has been groaning. It is in pain as if it were giving birth to a child. The created world continues to groan even now.
Paul didn’t say it was only Christians who were groaning. Or even that only people were groaning. No – he said all that God created has been groaning.
Still having trouble with the concept? How about this from Isaiah 11:6-9 –
Isa 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
Isa 11:7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
Isa 11:8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.
Isa 11:9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
This is part of Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the second coming of Jesus. This will be what God created – without the groaning. This will be life without the corruption of Satan. This will be life the way it was meant to be.
Then maybe we’ll all be like Astrid, after getting scared half to death while riding Toothless with Hiccup – she finally sees what it’s really like and says –
All right, I admit it. This is pretty cool. It’s… *amazing*. He’s amazing.
Ready to ride a dragon?
Remember from above – Two of which were related to dragons in Heaven. Yes – two.
So – what about that second thing – the “other” dragons in Heaven?
Another kind of dragon
Let’s go back and look at those 3 quotes again –
Eats its victims… burns its victims… buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside- out… Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous… kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight…
“Everything we know about you guys is wrong.”
All right, I admit it. This is pretty cool. It’s… *amazing*. He’s amazing.
The first one is about something bad – really bad. Something that kills – so it needs to be killed first.
At least that’s the way we think it goes. Then we find out that everything we thought we knew was wrong. Maybe kill first isn’t the way to go.
Then we find out that the thing we wanted to kill was cool – amazing, even.
OK – we don’t know the way things were supposed to be. But God does.
We don’t know what’s inside people’s hearts. But God does.
How many “dragons” have we created in our lives? How many things / people have we condemned to a position of kill or be killed – without really understanding those things / people? Chances are we don’t even think about it – don’t have a clue how many. But God does.
At the time I originally wrote this, there was a lot stuff in the news about the Casey Anthony trial – I’m reminded of it by this movie. I’m not going to get into whether or not Casey murdered her daughter. We don’t know. But God does.
What I find interesting is all the people who know nothing – nothing – about what actually happened – but want her to die for the murder of her child – and now even want the jurors to die because of the verdict.
Sounds like a potential dragon to me.
I know – it’s a terrible thing when a child dies. But – does that justify what’s happening now? For those that don’t remember, public sentiment was very high. Lots of people decided that she did it – she was a horrible person – and needed to die. As did the jurors who failed to convict her. Compared to some of what’s happening right now – just wanting Casey to die is, unfortunately, pretty tame. Now, just a few years later, people are literally being killed. Other than maybe Casey – and maybe one or two other people – no living human knows what happened. But God does.
Hiccup was the first to see what dragons were really like – he saw the fear in the eyes of Toothless – and saw himself. And then he decided to learn – really truly learn – about Toothless – about dragons. And he found that everything he (thought he) knew about them was wrong. Then he got Astrid to realize the truth too. Then the whole village learned about dragons.
Yes – Hiccup trained his dragon – he trained Toothless.
But Hiccup trained another dragon too – his fear of dragons.
And then Astrid got over her fear of dragons.
And then the other kids in the dragon killing class got over their fear of dragons.
And then the whole town got over their fear of dragons.
But what if they didn’t? What if Hiccup had killed Toothless?
Then everyone would still have been afraid of dragons – and the village would continue to be terrorized by them.
Then they would be in a situation like what Paul wrote –
Ro 8:22 We know that all that God created has been groaning. It is in pain as if it were giving birth to a child. The created world continues to groan even now.
Life would still be like it was at the beginning of the movie, when Hiccup said –
This is Berk. It’s twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It’s located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. My village. In a word? Sturdy, and it’s been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunset. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have…Dragons!
Instead – because Hiccup and everyone else got over their fear of dragons – what we saw above happened – people got over their fear of dragons – and Hiccup closes the movie with this line –
This is Berk. It snows nine months out of the year, and hails the other three. What little food grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here, even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies, or parrots … we have dragons.
So yes – Hiccup trained a dragon – the literal dragon named Toothless.
But Hiccup trained another dragon as well – the figurative one that was within himself – his fear of dragons.
And we need to do the same thing – train the dragons within ourselves – so they won’t kill us.
And when we finally get over our dragons – we will have the wolf living with the lamb.
Now – take that back to Casey Anthony. Did she do it? I don’t know. But God does.
Did God make her to be that way? No.
Will He forgive her – assuming that she did it – and assuming that she asks forgiveness? Yes.
The thing is – we don’t know whether or not any of our “dragons” are really guilty of some of the things for which we convict them. Honestly – we really don’t. But even in those cases where we can know – we also don’t don’t whether or not they will ask God for forgiveness. He does – but we don’t. And so we’re called to treat everyone as one of God’s children. Partly because they might ask for forgiveness. And partly because the way we treat them may be what helps lead them to the point of asking forgiveness. We don’t know. But God does.
Remember this?
Mt 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Mt 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Mt 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
Mt 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Mt 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
Mt 25:44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
Mt 25:45 “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
Mt 25:46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Again – Is she a dragon? Certainly someone’s dragon – there’s enough people that want to kill her.
Could she end up in Heaven? Absolutely – she could – just like the robber on the cross next to Jesus.
But we just don’t know. What if Casey Anthony – or whoever your Dragon is – because of the way we treated them, lead’s Jesus to say to us – ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
Is it not better to love everyone – and have Jesus say to us – ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Are you and I someone’s dragon?
Will you and I end up in Heaven?
Will the person who thinks we’re a dragon end up in Heaven?
Do you and I have any dragons in our lives?
Will those dragons end up in Heaven?
Will you and I end up in Heaven?
When Jesus was on the cross, the following took place as told in Luke 23:38- 43 –
Lk 23:38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Lk 23:39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
Lk 23:40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Lk 23:42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
Lk 23:43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
One of these men learned to train his dragon – the other didn’t.
Anyone up for some dragon training?