Heaven & Earth

The spheres at right are in the Map Room of the Doge's Palace in Venice, Italy. The Doge was the ruler of Venice in days gone by.

One sphere is earth, the terrestrial sphere, and the other is the celestial sphere, in other words--heaven.

I did not know that either this room or these spheres existed until I walked into the Map Room this summer. I read the placard describing the room and nearly fell to my knees when I turned around and beheld the spheres.

I had been considering for a while that heaven and earth are similar in many ways--populated by embodied "souls," with trees and most of the other features of nature that delineate our terrestrial orb.

Is it possible that heaven and earth are in close proximity to each other? Jesus said, when he taught about his mission and explained his purpose in preaching and teaching, "The kingdom of God is near."

If heaven is where God is and where His will is perfectly done (and it is: Matthew 6:9-10 (NIV) "This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, [10] your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. '") then it is not such a stretch, to my way of thinking, to consider the possibility that heaven is, perhaps, another dimension of human and natural existence.

Sounds like science fiction, doesn't it?

But what if the orbs/spheres that are in the Doge's Palace in Venice are, as near as possible, a close physical approximation of the relationship between heaven and earth?