Heaven-like

On Wednesday we had our very last class of Doctrine & Covenants. The reading assignment for that day was D&C 76... which is an incredibly long section, let me just tell you. Anyway, my teacher was explaining that a lot of people out there think that we believe only Mormons get into heaven, and that we're pretty exclusive in our beliefs to think that way. However, my teacher made the point that our view of heaven allows alot more people into heaven than the traditional view.

We believe in three separate kingdoms of heaven.
The telestial -those that receive not the gospel of Christ, and do not deny the Holy Ghost
The terrestrial -those that receive not the gospel of Christ, but are honorable men
The celestial -just men made perfect through Christ

We believe that all children who die before the age of 8 make it into the highest (the Celestial) level of heaven. And those that died without the gospel but would have accepted it had they received it, and those that are baptized and go through one of the Lord's holy temples will achieve that Celestial glory. Which is where people get the idea that we think only Mormons get into heaven. But Joseph Smith said that if we could glimpse even the lowest degree of heaven (the telestial), we would kill ourselves just to get there. God loves his children and he wants us all to be happy. He loves us so much that he is willing to design a plan, where we can all attain peace and happiness, even if we don't choose to follow Him. Only those that know and fully understand the truth, and willingly choose to defy the Holy Ghost, and fight against Christ get stuck in "outer darkness", or hell.

Contrast that to the more traditional views of heaven and hell, where people who believe in Christ go to heaven, and people who don't believe in Christ go to hell.

But on another note, there was something else that stood out to me more. Verse 94, of section 76 gives a line describing those that attain the Celestial glory: "they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace"

I believe this emphasizes the importance of viewing others, and ourselves, the way Christ sees us. Christ would have us love others the way he loves them. He would have us love ourselves, and see the potential we have to do good. Imagine all the hurt and despair that would be gone from the world if we would only open our eyes to the beautiful potential of everyone within our grasp--if we did not limit ourselves or others.

People ask, how could God let this happen to me? God believes in agency. We each have the opportunity to choose for ourselves. If you think about it that way... I don't think that many of us would choose to sacrifice our freedom of choice, to be protected from bad things. Don't you think God would prefer that we all loved each other as much as he does? Don't you think he would prefer that none of us chose to hurt others? But like I pointed out, losing our agency is not worth losing all negative experiences. We're on this earth to grow, to experience sadness and joy. Would you really want to get to heaven and look back on your life and see that you never learned what sadness was? How disappointing would that be, to not understand half of the human experience? Let alone the fact, that I don't believe you can experience joy without being able to distinguish it from sadness.

I'm grateful for my experiences, no matter how much of a burden they may seem. They bless my life in ways I will forever be grateful for.