Ah, yes, the "beatific vision," a view I've heard so often from so many...

A view that (to me) is so foreign to scripture, the observed universe, and our human experience, I am at a loss as to how it could possibly be so widely held. I find it far more akin to the Star Trek idea of assimilation by the Borg...

Maybe I'm Jewish and don't know it? I think the average Old Testament Jew would be horrified by this concept. Abraham and his sons looked forward to a rich life in full possession of The Land, not some eternal gazing at God...

Certainly being in the personal presence of our Creator will be an unmatched thrill... but like any other pleasure, to be appreciated it must needs be cyclic. To imagine our ultimate, eternal purpose to be a perpetual "God-gasm" is belittling to God's entire revelation of himself.

Forgive me, John, if I'm misconstruing your concept of "beatific vision," and feel free to correct my understanding of how you see things... :)

But God himself admonishes us to enjoy his creation. There's a whole lot of creation to enjoy, including myriad other "Thou"s as counterparts to the "I-Thou" relationship between us and God.