§51 each community is a heaven 27
f. There is a sharing of everything good in heaven because heavenly love shares everything it has
with others: 549 , 550 , 1390 , 1391 , 1399 , 10130 , 10723.
individual with everyone.f We will have more to say about this outreach
below, though, when we discuss the heavenly form in which angelic
communities are arranged (and also when we discuss the wisdom and
intelligence of angels), for all the outreach of affections and thoughts fol-
lows this form.
We have noted above that there are larger and smaller communities 50
in the heavens. The larger ones consist of tens of thousands of individu-
als, the smaller of some thousands, and the smallest of hundreds. There
are even people who live alone, house by house, so to speak, and family
by family. Even though they live apart, they are still arranged in the same
pattern as those who live in communities, with the wiser of them in the
center and the simpler at the periphery. They are very closely under the
Lord’s guidance, and are the best of angels.
Each Community Is a Heaven in Smaller Form
and Each Angel a Heaven in Smallest Form
51
T
HE reason each community is a heaven in smaller form and each
angel a heaven in smallest form is that the activity of love and faith iswhat makes heaven. This good activity is in every community of heaven
and in every angel of a community. It does not matter that this activity is
different and distinctive everywhere, it is still the activity of heaven. The
only difference is that heaven has one activity here and another there. So
whenever anyone is raised into any community of heaven, they say that
she or he has arrived in heaven. They say of those who are there that they
are in heaven, each in his or her own. All the people who have arrived in
the other life realize this; so individuals who are standing outside or below
heaven and looking off into the distance where there is a gathering of
angels say that heaven is there—and over there as well.