Spiritual Memory

There are some things about our values that just do not seem to make sense.

The first is gold. Humans are obsessed with this metal. Different people, in different corners of the world, who may have had no contact with each other, nevertheless share that they put a very high value on gold. So many people have risked their lives, sailing to distant and dangerous lands in search of gold. The truth behind a lot of colonization, particularly that of the Spanish Empire in the western hemisphere, is that it was driven by a relentless search for gold.

The amazing thing about this obsession is that gold is not even useful, at least from a technical or industrial point of view. Iron is surely a hundred times more useful then gold. Aside from our utterly illogical fascination with it, the only things that are useful about gold is it's ductility and resistance to corrosion. Ductility means that it can be drawn into fine wires or other forms. But those uses only gained any value in fairly recent times, while our deep attachment to gold extends far back into ancient times.

The second thing that makes no apparent sense is our attachment to jewels. As with gold, people have crossed the world, searched endlessly, fought and killed, and risked their lives, all for stones that sparkle in the light.

Also as with gold, most jewels are of little or no technical or industrial use. Diamonds are the hardest known material, and so are useful for drilling and abrasives, but that was not the case until modern times. The attachment to jewels, like gold, goes far back into ancient times.

The third thing that seems to make no sense is the global reverence for lions. The name of one of the greatest cities in the world, Singapore, means "The City of the Lion", even though no lion lived anywhere near Singapore in it's natural habitat. An entire religion, the Sikhs, gives all of it's members a surname which means "lion". The name is Singh. Why would the lion be the symbol of Britain which, like Singapore, is nowhere near the natural habitat of lions. The Sphinx, surely the best-known artifact of ancient times, represents a lion. In the Bible, Jesus is referred to as "The Lion of Judah".

But, as with gold and jewels, we have to question why. Lions are not practical for pets, are not useful for meat, nor can we get any useful work out of them. Yet they have always occupied a very prominent place in human symbolism and culture around the world.

Maybe the answer lies in the Bible, particularly the Book of Revelation. Chapter 4 describes a direct vision of God in Heaven. There are four creatures who live there, and the first one looks like a lion. Chapter 21 describes the city referred to as "New Jerusalem". The city is made of gold, and has foundations of twelve precious jewels.

When people find themselves in a strange new place, the first thing that they tend to do is to look for something familiar. Could it be that we are really spiritual beings who have to spend a period of time on earth as a test? We cannot directly "remember" Heaven but we nevertheless have a "spiritual memory" of what is there, and it explains these utterly illogical attachments of ours.

This does not mean that the first creature in Heaven is an actual lion, such a creature would be gentle and godly, but only that earthly lions remind us of it in our spiritual memories. It also does not mean that the New Jerusalem, or anything else in Heaven, is made of actual earthly gold or jewels, but it does remind us of it.