Heaven

In some ways, I had almost an idyllic childhood or at least it looks that way in retrospect. Some of my best memories were in a very small town in Minnesota with my best friend living next door. He eventually moved.

Twenty-five years later, we reconnected via Facebook. He compared our childhood times to heaven: "The bliss and simple pleasure of swinging on a swing in the backyard on a summer day with my best friend, who I loved with absolutely no taint of the impurities and flaws that come later in life... I always think that that is what our lives will be like in heaven... yet enhanced because we will understand what we've lost and finally returned to."

Jesus said: "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Luke 18:17

Innocence characterizes childhood. Sadly, it quickly is destroyed in many children today. One definition of innocence is "freedom from guile, cunning, or deceit; simplicity or artlessness." Children are the first to tell you that you smell or are fat. They'll wrap their arms around your neck and tell you they love you. They will cry when they are sad. They laugh and skip and never worry about the eyes that follow them.

This past Christmas, a little four or five year old walked up in front of the church to sing. She tripped on the steps, but scrambled back up and performed. Watching her face, I could see she wasn't worried what we thought of her. I wonder if there is one adult in a million who could trip and not worry, even slightly, about his image.

I think it is their honesty about life and who they are and their simple trust to which God is referring when He invites us to come to Him like a child. Ignorance and foolishness also blind their understanding. But Jesus reveals this is not characteristic of His children: "...be wise as serpents and innocent as doves" Matthew 10:16. He does not ask us to shut off our brain, but to turn it on for Him.

What does all this have to do with heaven?

Charles Stanford said, "Heaven must be in me before I can be in heaven." This is the point Jesus was making when He said the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8). Yet how can we return to the innocence of children? He explains that we must be born again, born a second time (John 3:1-21). When questioned about what this means, Jesus stated the most frequently quoted, yet poignant scripture: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
(Joh 3:16-17)

Heaven is still a distant place that each person will receive or reject forever before they die. Is heaven in you?