Heaven and Hell

Easter morning I had planned to attend an outdoor sunrise church service but the 35 degree temp along with rain and a gusty north wind caused me to cancel plans to attend the Easter service. I tried to remember if I had ever been to an outdoor Easter sunrise service. Surly I had but I could not remember ever going to one. I'll admit the sole purpose of going to the April 8 2007 sunrise service was not totally religious. The church was going to serve breakfast after the service and I was not about to pass up a free breakfast even if I had to sit with a bunch of other sinners while I ate it.
One of the good things about the Christian faith is that it is not imposed on anyone. It is a gift, an offer to mankind. God gave men and women the free will to chose whether or not to accept salvation, but is Heaven and Hell really a place or are they just religious symbols designed to galvanize the faithful? What happens when we admit blame and promise to sin no more then we go back on our word? Are we really thrown into the inferno of eternal damnation? Hell is really just a state of eternal separation from God. It's more symbolic than a physical place.
The goal of every Christian should be the communion with God, that's the true Heaven. It's not a physical place in the clouds we strive for. We are all sinners, Jesus knew that when he said "He that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone"
That big halfway house between Heaven and Hell that most of us live in is only a theological hypothesis and not a definitive truth of our faith. It's true that birds of a feather flock together so on Easter Sunday many people including myself who never go to church all year long gather to renounce their sins. I hope God didn't get too mad when I did not attend this years sunrise survive. I did read my bible Easter morning, accomplishing the Christian's goal of communion with God and ask for forgiveness just as I would have if I had been setting in the front row at the outdoor service. Hopefully that will give me enough God credit until this time next year. Besides God can use the bacon and eggs I didn't eat to feed some other sinner. There will never be a shortage of sinners with empty stomach because God makes sure the food is always terrible in the halfway house.