The other night I was meditating and praying about whether heaven has any kind of entertainment... you know, plays, movies, books, etc. , and an interesting scenario began playing out in my mind.
I was totally fascinated as I was given a glimpse of a group of people talking and laughing among themselves. After watching them for a while, here's what I concluded.
Heaven is definitely not boring. There is laughter, fun, joy, playing, singing, dancing, and even drama. Serious drama and comedy!
People don't become all-knowing just because they're in heaven. Some have been there for hundreds, even thousands of years, and they still don't know everything. They have to learn the scriptures, just like we do. They have to learn self-discipline, and worship, and getting along together, and how to do certain kinds of work and assignments.
There are classes and workshops, auditoriums, laboratories, libraries, universities, archives, studios, theaters, amphitheaters, cathedrals, concert halls and rehearsal halls, low-tech and high-tech everything. All in addition to the Throne Room and individual homes and villages and rolling hills and seas and lakes and the wonderful city full of activity, both above ground and below ground.
There's continuous learning and inventing and trying-out and practicing, improving and modifying, and just plain having a fascinating, exciting and fulfilling life. Everyone's work assignment from the Lord is designed especially for him/her and changes from time to time. Nobody ever gets bored or sad.
So back to my question about entertainment. First I was given a little lesson about how some things are taught, scriptural things and historical things. Some past events are portrayed in holographic-type skits, designed and sometimes even performed by those who were there at the time.
Newcomers who want to know what it was like in the days of Elijah can go see a reenactment of his miracles, Elijah himself explaining and describing what they're seeing! Now that would be worth getting in line for.
So what does all that have to do with Friar Tuck? I asked the Lord whether all this was strictly for educational purposes, or was there ever anything fictional, you know, just for fun. For entertainment.
And then in my mind I was taken to a Robin Hood play rehearsal, to be performed by a group of folks just for their own enjoyment -- a "limited engagement." It was hilarious. Modern-day believers, most of them, had no idea what to do with some of the props. They had researched and created what looked right, but they'd never worn clothing like that and they looked so funny getting into costume.
The funniest was the fellow playing Friar Tuck -- nobody in heaven is overweight, you see, but every Robin Hood movie I've ever seen shows Friar Tuck as roly-poly. Pillows? No pillows handy. Some other kind of stuffing -- layers of clothing, maybe? It was like some skinny fellow playing Santa Claus in a shopping mall.
Everybody was having a wonderful time with this rehearsal, laughing at themselves and each other. Then I asked -- so, Robin Hood was really a fictional character, wasn't he. Here's what I heard in reply:
Well, actually there was a "Robin Hood" but he was more than one person. He was a composite character, many people written up in English traditions as just one for the sake of the story. Lots of embellishment was added as the years went by.
And the various "Robin Hoods" weren't all honest, either. Some of them robbed the rich and gave to the poor today, but then robbed the rich and kept the loot for themselves the next day. Still, the traditional story had a nice moral to it, good triumphing over evil and all.
These actors were going to play it that way, if they ever got their costumes on and started the rehearsal! One of these days I'm going to ask the Lord to show me their finished production.
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