Last night, as I lay sleeping, I woke up with a start
For what I had been dreaming had nearly stopped my heart.
I dreamed that I was standing outside a pearly gate.
Saint Peter ran admissions and he would judge my fate.

The gate was jewel-studded, on top a golden crown.
There was an elevator with just one button: Down.
Pete looked through all his records, then told me, “Go on in.
“And don’t look so astonished; research is not a sin.”

And, when I entered Heaven, my jaw went slack with awe.
In my first view of Paradise, here is what I saw.
Darwin and Wallace, walkin’ with Jesus, glowin’ in Heaven’s holy light.
Darwin and Wallace, talkin’ with Jesus: who would think I would see that sight?

Darwin and Wallace, walkin’ with Jesus, mirrored on Heaven’s golden street,
Darwin and Wallace, talkin’ with Jesus, who ever thought these three would
meet?
Darwin and Wallace, walkin’ with Jesus, my first view of Heaven’s scene.
Darwin and Wallace, talkin’ with Jesus: Falwell was nowhere to be seen.

I sat down on a park bench, enjoyin’ Heaven’s air.
I looked for TV preachers but never saw one there.
Some other groups came walkin’, quite shocking, once again.
They were all men of science and Peter let them in!

Newton and Einstein, walkin’ with Moses, not a trace of hostility.
Newton and Einstein, talkin’ with Moses: matters of great gravity.
Hubble and Hawking, walkin’ with Yahweh: music played and angels sang.
Hubble and Hawking, talkin’ with Yahweh: “Let there be? Or a great big bang?”

Darwin and Wallace, talkin’ with Jesus, my first view of Heaven’s scene,
Newton and Einstein, talkin’ with Moses: Falwell was nowhere to be seen.

Notes: Wallace is, of course, Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of the origin of
species by variation, then natural selection. No divine hand seemed necessary.
Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein need no introduction. Edwin Hubble was the
first to discover that the universe was expanding. Stephen Hawking made
fundamental contributions to cosmology and black holes, in spite of being nearly
paralysed with ALS.