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Heaven or more accurately "the heavens" from the Hebrew shamayim is the dwelling place of God. St Paul bears out the plurality of these eternal dimensions when in 2 Corinthians 12:2 he says:

Nicodemus the Hagiorite sees this as an initiation into the tree of life in the middle of Paradise (Genesis 2) and an understanding of the ineffable mysteries hidden from us.

To John the Theologian is revealed a similar truth in the Apocalypse:

Christ Himself, when speaking of his imminent departure in John's Gospel and the way to the father says:

In Holy Scripture, heaven is often called Paradise, where God is surrounded by the just, from the Persian word for a tree planted garden. Our Lord on the cross turns to the penitent thief to assure him in his moment of crisis:

Paradise of which Our Lord speaks is the Kingdom of God, since the thief asked him:

"Remember me Lord, when you come into your kingdom."

Paradise is eternal life in communion and unity with the Triune God.

St.Isaac the Syrian in his Ascetical Homilies speaks of Paradise as the love of God

"wherein is the enjoyment of all blessedness."

However, it is wrong to think of Hell as the absence of God, both the righteous and sinners will see God in the future life but while the righteous will have communion with the love of God the sinners will experience His caustic energy.

God, in his infinite wisdom and love for mankind gives us windows into paradise in the life of Our Saviour, His All-holy Mother and His saints and through their Icons. Icons are not merely representations of the prototype they are grace- bearing blessings to the faithful, since they are not merely works of art but they are works of prayer. St. Nicholas Planas, whenever he was unsure of any venture would go to the Icon of the Theotokos and ask her whether he should undertake the task. If she smiled on him he took this as a yes, if she was stern in her appearance he would not go ahead with the proposed work. This simple act demonstrates the power of the icon for those who have faith, obedience and humility.

On a recent visit to Romania I met two young Iconographers. Their work for God was impressive but what impressed me more was the visible effect their work had on them. The discipline of fasting, prayer and careful preparation even in the young for writing Icons had bestowed a peace and inner stillness to their lives. In writing icons of the saints, they had become inspired and entered into a special communion where they study and paint the holy ones and the holy ones look back at them. In our creed we confess our belief in "the communion of saints". This blessed communion in our Holy Orthodox faith means that the dimension of paradise is an ever-present reality where eternity enters into our present moment.

His Beatitude Teoctist of Romania in "The Icon in the Child's Soul" writes:

The love of beauty and goodness "filokalia" lies at the heart of those who would open the windows of heaven in order to breathe the clean, fresh, eternal breath of God and to see others in God's Light. So, we see the effect of the saints on those monks, nuns and laity who write Icons.

Rev. Prof. Dr. Constantin Galeriu writes in his article on children icon painters "Close to the Early Clearness":

Christ said:

So the mind (nous) is the spiritual eye of the soul that illuminates the inner man (and child). Cultivating the innocence of the child in us with purity, discernment and enthusiasm for our faith is fundamental for our spiritual growth.

The Icon then conveys the utterly heavenly and draws us nearer to God even though it is composed simply of lines and colours in two dimensions. It should be pointed out to those who are non- Orthodox that Orthodox Christians do not worship (latreia) icons they venerate (proskenesis) the prototype that the image represents because we know and love the saints in the light of Christ's resurrection. Even though we have these windows and glimpses into heaven we cannot imagine or realise the immense fullness of the Beatific vision of heaven in its complete eternal glory whilst on earth.

C.S. Lewis an atheist convert to Christianity, Fellow of Magdalene College Oxford and later Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge paints a striking metaphor to illustrate the comparison of life on earth and life in heaven in his theory of" Transposition" in "Screwtape Proposes a Toast". He asks us to picture a woman who has been thrown into a dungeon where she bears a son who grows up having seen nothing more than the dungeon walls, the straw on the floor and the little patch of sky seen through the grating high up in the ceiling. This unfortunate woman happens to be an artist and the guards allowed her the concession of a drawing pad and pencils to ease her incarceration. This woman never loses the hope of deliverance and so she sets about teaching her son about the world outside which she had known but he had never seen. She does this largely by drawing pictures. She draws rivers, fields, mountains, cities, seas and the boy does his best to understand and believe that the world outside is more interesting and far more glorious than the dungeon. One day, however, whilst trying to explain something to her son, the mother realises that the boy had lived under a misconception.

"But"she gasps,"you didn’t think that the real world was full of lines drawn in lead pencil?"

"What" says the boy "no pencil-marks there?" Instantly his whole notion of the outer world is confused for he had imagined the world with lines. The boy has no idea of that which dispenses with lines such as light dancing on water or the breeze rustling the trees. Those coloured three-dimensional realities with which we are so familiar, but are not circumscribed by lines, define their own shape with a multiplicity and delicacy no drawing could ever achieve.

In reality, the world outside lacks lines because it is incomparably more visible.

So it is with our conception of heaven. We do not know what we shall be but we may be sure that we shall be more not less than we were on earth. C. S. Lewis commented that even though the lines were only a drawing yet in another sense that which is drawn aspires to perfection. If the shadows are properly drawn the paper will in some mystical way convey blazing sunshine, the coldness of winter or a roaring fire.

Christ our Saviour came to teach us about the kingdom of heaven often using the most material similes-a mustard seed, leaven or treasure in a field.

How much more in the communion of prayer with the Creator does the spiritual reality of the icon invest the material reality with a new dimension; a dimension of the landscape of heaven in line and colour.

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