Church Magazine Letter - London Trip

Roger’s Letter

For our 40th wedding anniversary, back in July, our family bought us a trip to London, two nights in a posh hotel and dinner at a top class restaurant. The trip was booked for September and we had a lovely time.

We spent our first two years of married life in London and this was a trip down memory lane for us. It included walking the circuit we used to do of an evening - along King's Road, pressing our noses to the window of the Peter Jones store in Sloane Square and dreaming about what we might one day afford. Then to Battersea Bridge past Chelsea Barracks, now a building site, through Battersea Park, over Albert Bridge and back to our flat. We weren't rich having a flat in such a place, by the way, just very lucky!

On the first day of the trip we took a walk past St Paul's Cathedral. There are now some swish revolving glass doors, engraved with a quotation from Genesis 28.17: “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”. Through the doors is the notice that says “Entrance fee – adults £10 each”. £10 each for heaven sounds like good value but we passed on it, having visited several times before. St Paul's I mean, not heaven. We only wanted a quick look to see if it had changed.

But is my throw-away comment wrong after all? Have we really never had a glimpse of what heaven is like? Is heaven really somewhere else, for when we die, or can we get a taste of it right here on earth? Theologians talk about the Kingdom of Heaven being “inaugurated but not complete”, but what does that mean in the real world?

I reckon our nostalgic trip to London suggests that we do get glimpses of heaven, but actually in the ordinary things: often in unexpected ways, like a beautiful butterfly that comes and sits gently on your shoulder. Maybe the way we remember those occasional evening walks in London so well, rather than the far grander things on offer, shows that there was a little bit of heaven there, in the simple things.

Oh, the meal at the restaurant was fairly heavenly too!

All my love,
Roger