Heaven

I write a lot about the tragedies that have befallen my family because it gives me an outlet for my pain, it gives encouragement to others who may be suffering and it gives God glory for His love and mercy.  Some of you may wonder how I can give God glory for the death or our grandson who was only 5 months old and for the accident that severely hurt my grand-daughter, Sarah, and left my 4 year old grandson paralyzed from the neck down.  That is a valid question.  One of which I had to ask myself.  I didn’t immediately fall on the ground giving God thanks for what had happened.  It wasn’t like that at all.   I had a wide range of emotions that I went through.  Some of which were anger, frustration, hopelessness and guilt all of which eventually gave way to peace………. Undeniable, unmistakable and all encompassing peace from God. 

My relationship with God changed once I realized that these things didn’t happen to punish my family.  I wouldn’t presume to know all of the reasons God allowed these event to happen, but I believe one of the reasons was to bring me into a closer relationship with Him.  Yes, I wish they had never happened but I can’t and wouldn’t change those events if it meant changing back to the person I was before they happened.  I have a different appreciation for God’s word now.  It came alive to me through tragedy.    “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”  Psalm 147:3  The bible was no longer something that  I opened occasionally at home and on Sundays when I happen to make it to church..  It was the living breathing word of God that reached into my soul and gave me hope, it gave me peace and it gave me a future.

My grandson, Caleb, is in the arms of Jesus.  He spent his first Christmas with the Savior.  I have to smile when I think about that.  The bible says that in heaven we will know as we are known , 1 Corinthians 13:12.  We will know each other in heaven and this makes me overjoyed because when I get to heaven I will have one of the things that I love the most here on earth, a baby.  Not just any baby but my sweet baby grandson.  I will be able to love him forever into eternity.

If God doesn’t heal Jason while he is living here, he will be made perfect when he gets to heaven.  No more breathing machine, catheters, feeding tube or colostomy!  Every part of his body will work as it should and be perfect in every way.  Our heavenly bodies will be made of flesh but it will be indestructible flesh that will last for eternity.  After Jesus was raised from the dead he said “”Look at My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself! Touch Me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”  Luke 24:39  Our bodies will be like Jesus when we are in heaven, so if He has flesh and bones we will have flesh and bones.

My thoughts of heaven are consuming some times.  I think about the perfect body (of course), meeting Jesus face to face, holding my baby grandson, Caleb, living in paradise, walking on streets of gold!!!  Imagine that we don’t have to eat to sustain our bodies but we eat for the pure pleasure of it and what that food will taste like.  I imagine it will be better than any food we have ever tasted multiplied by a thousand!  Eternity in heaven is what gives Christians hope.  Without this hope life isn’t worth living.  I can think of many reasons to be angry, depressed, frustrated, discouraged, etc. but I’m not.  My joy is not in this world but in the world to come. 

Death is going to come to each of us.  I know some people don’t like to talk about it, but it is the natural end to life.  Sometimes death comes sooner than expected, it’s tragic, but we have to face the truth, we are all going to die.  I pray that you have this hope of heaven and that your name is in the Lamb’s book of life.  If you do I thank God for you.  If you don’t will you please consider where you will spend eternity if your life was asked of you this very day?  Do not wait or put off to another time when the Spirit is leading you.  Another time may not ever present itself.