This is a well deserved honor for this beautiful essay. I'm glad you decided to share your essay. It is beautiful. My mother died when I was a child, so I have written many times about death but not yet about heaven. I give hugs to my friends too, especially when I think one might bring some cheer to a rough day.
Hugs are warmth to the heart.
Again, your essay is wonderful. It is dangerous for a Sunday school teacher to tell children's stories which provoke more discussion than the minister's sermons, at least that is what a parishioners just told me recently. Funny thing, this is the first church which I have attended where hugging is the rule of the day any day, so to fit into the communinity, I started doing it as well and found out that I liked it. The minister himself did as much hugging as anyone, but he only hugs married women, not children. I find that very strange.