So often the words we speak, be they metaphorical or descriptive in other ways, become the literal ways we think about things. For example the metaphor of the heart as a pump is often used, but in actual fact the heart is much more than a pump, and thinking of it in such a way gives away ground to think of the human body like a machine therefore denying it it’s correct standing when discussion arise regarding the moral status of the body.
This is also true when we refer to heaven as ‘above’, although the bible uses this metaphor, it is important to remember it is not the only metaphor for heaven and heaven isn’t geographically positioned above us. It is originally platonic greek philosophy that gives us the separation between physical and spiritual and locates the heavens and spiritual realm as apart from the world, or at very least in the clouds presiding over the world. That is why I found this thought from Robin Parry an interesting way of thinking of heaven:
"The temple, so biblical scholars tell us, was creation-in-miniature. In this model the central part of the temple – the most holy place – represented the heavenly realms.
What is interesting is that the spatial image here is not of the heavens ‘above’ but as the heavens ‘within’ – the spiritual depth dimensions of creation."
Again, I am not trying to say that the heavens exist in a physical way in the centre of the earth or anything, but that it is good for us to consistently switch metaphors when relating to heaven in order to keep us aware that our speech is metaphorical and not literal.
