“Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus makes this promise to a condemned man crucified beside him. So the first person to receive such an assurance is a thief who had the good sense to ask at the very last moment. A Paradise emoji should keep something of that surprise: a door thrown open where nobody expected one.
The word itself comes from an ancient Iranian term for an enclosed garden; the Greek translators of the Bible borrowed it for the garden of Eden. Paradise begins in a garden, then, and ends, in the Book of Revelation, in a city where there are no more tears and no more death (Rev 21:4). The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of “the state of supreme, definitive happiness”: communion with God, not a holiday home with a view over the clouds.
On the keyboard, paradise boils down to 🏝️, and cartoons have left us harps, togas and fluffy clouds. Saint Paul was more careful: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard” (1 Cor 2:9). That makes the challenge all the more wonderful. A garden gate half open onto light, a tree of life heavy with fruit, a golden city resting on the horizon: send us the image that speaks of heaven without shrinking it.
There’s no proposal yet!
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