Lessons at the grocery store –
Heaven (by the way I never know whether or not to capitalize heaven - I go back and forth in this blog)
We have had a lot of conversations about heaven the last
several months. Hannah went through a
phase where she was very scared about heaven and kept saying she didn’t want to
go there. I realized she thought if she became
a Christian she would automatically leave us and go straight to heaven. We talked that out and she seemed to be
okay. We also reminded her about how
happy a place heaven will be. Not long
after that “Heaven is a Wonderful Place ”
a Psalty song became her favorite song.
I hadn’t heard much more from the kids on the subject until
today. I can’t remember what brought it
up but Benjamin asked if we would go to heaven when we died. I told him that all who believe in Jesus as
their Savior would go to heaven when they die.
He asked if everyone dies and I said yes. He wanted to know how long we would be in
heaven. I said, “forever” so they both
starting saying things like “you mean 600 days?!?”, “or 100 days?!?, or “1,000
days?!?”. I said no much more than that,
more days than we can even number, for all eternity and then it came out, a
Buzz Lightyear quote, I couldn’t help myself and I said, “To infinity and
beyond!” J
Benjamin started to cry.
“I don’t want to be in Heaven forever”, Hannah added, “I want to bring
something to Heaven with me” I explained
that Heaven is so wonderful that we won’t need to bring anything with us. Hannah said, “but I want to bring lambie pie
with me” and Benjamin said, “I need puppy and bear”. I told them they wouldn’t need those things
because we would be with God and it will be more wonderful than anything we can
even think of! The conversation went on
and on and we talked about lots more things (will we go to bed in Heaven, will
it get dark in Heaven, etc.) I don’t think I ever convinced them how good
Heaven is. We read Revelation 21 when we
got home so I could show them what the Bible says. Benjamin is still not sure he wants to
go. I told him it is not time for him to
go yet and not to worry. I also reminded
him that we must believe in Jesus as our Savior to go to Heaven (don’t want him
to think that everyone just automatically goes there when we die).
So what lesson can Mama learn from this “lesson at the
grocery store”. I think of a couple of
things; first of all they were very
focused on their “things” here on earth that they wanted to take with us. We do get very attached to our things (me
too). However, the Bible tells us we
should lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:20 ). I love
giving my kids gifts, it is such a joy, but I need to remind them of the
greatest gift they could ever receive, God’s gift of salvation.
The second lesson is to remember that this is not our
home. We are temporary residents
here. God has a much greater plan for us
to spend eternity with Him. Eternity is
something that my 5 and 6 year old cannot comprehend….and I cannot comprehend
it either!!! In my Bible Study a few
weeks ago (Kay Arthur's: “Lord Give me a Heart for You”), Kay was talking about
Heaven and how we don’t think about it much.
She asked us to consider how we would be feeling if we were “at death’s
door”, what would we feel? What would we
fear? I thought about it and though my
fears are not the same as my kids but I do fear the unknown too! My biggest fear is leaving my family behind
to live without me. I don’t really want
to take anything with me like they do but I don’t want to miss out on them
growing up. But that is not up to me and
not something to worry about. Oh to be
like Paul and be able to say, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”
Philippians 1:21
The lesson today is to live my life in a way that is
pleasing to God and to always be ready for the time when He decides to take me
home. We don’t know how Heaven will be
but to quote one of my favorite singers, “to be absent from the body is to be
present with the Lord, and from what I know of Him that will be very good.” (Sara Groves
– What do I know) (Go listen to the song now and then buy all of her albums :))
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