Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Which Way to Heaven?

Do you ever think about death and where we go after we die? I absolutely believe in Heaven. I use to think that everyone went to heaven. But the bible does say that Heaven is only for those who have accepted Jesus as their savior and believe that he died for our sins and rose from the dead. In a perfect world and because God loves all of us so much, I wish everyone were able to go to Heaven; if somehow, someway, Jesus himself were able to rescue those who may have otherwise fallen short either a little or a lot and bring them home. But no one really knows this for sure. What we do know is what the bible tells us.

John 3:16 says it all really: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal life" I also like John 14:6 which says: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

I think these two passages really sum up the reality of how to get to Heaven. It makes me sad when I think about all of the people who don't feel this way. Especially when it's the people I love.

My husband's faith has grown a lot since our Walk to Emmaus this past March. But I still wonder about what he feels and believes exactly.

One day I asked him, "Will I see you in Heaven?"

"You bet," he answered. "But I don't think you go to Heaven as a couple, I think you go up there as individuals."

His answered made me feel a little better. I told him that was ok with me. As long as I knew that I'd see his smile.

As we were sitting through a funeral service for my husbands uncle yesterday I listened to all of this beautiful scripture in regards to Heaven. I wondered if his uncle was a believer; wondered if his uncle was in Heaven, stuff like that. Then I began to wonder about the others sitting in that room and what they believed. As I sat there relishing in the words from the Bible and drew a strength and a peace from it, I wondered how much of the Word was being soaked up by others.

As we were driving to the cemetery my husband said "With all of those nice things (scripture) being said, I wonder how much of it fell upon deaf ears."

I told him that I had been thinking the same sort of thing.

"That's ok," he said, "They still have time."

Now this REALLY warmed my heart when he said this and cleared away even more of the fuzziness that I had in regards to his faith.

As much as I would love to take all of those I love by the hand and lead them to a relationship with Christ I know that's not the way. The way is to pray for them, to show them Christ's love through my life, and be there loving them regardless all of the days of their lives. Maybe I'll touch a heart or two along the way.

1 comment:

mom of 2 said...

Great post! My husband has not been saved...but I have hope for him! My grandmother was a devoted christian...never missed church. My grandfather never went to church. He ended up being saved and baptized at 80 years old and passed away when he was 83. There's always hope!!