Are You Going to Heaven?

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” – C. S. LewisA couple weeks ago, Linda and I sat and talked with Jean Meisner in her room at hospice. Jean was very special to me. She was an office worker here at the church when I started nine years ago, and was a constant source of wisdom and entertainment during my first four years. She became a Christian through the youth group in this church as a teenager in the late forties and has been a mainstay ever since.I asked her if she had been thinking about heaven and she said, “Yes. I’m wondering if I’ll recognize Ken (her husband) and what we’ll have to do up there.” Then referring to the sermon series I did on heaven a few years ago, she said, “I know you’ve got us all mowing our lawns up there!” I laughed and said, “I know we’ll have plenty to do.” But then she said, “I’ve had a good life but I’m looking forward to heaven.” Then she quoted an old hymn, “That song is so true: the things of this earth will grow strangely dim.”About ten days later, it became a reality to her as she stepped out into eternity.I do a lot of funerals. I have a lot of conversations with people shortly before they die and I always talk with them about heaven. But it never gets old to me. These people, many of them special to me, who were just as alive as me and speculating about what heaven will be like, are now there. The actuality of heaven is now as real to them as this earth is real to you and me.All of us are heading towards eternity. Will it be heaven for you?There is a lot about heaven in the Bible. Far more than most realize. And the Bible’s description of heaven is very different from most people’s speculation. According to the Bible, heaven is a physical place, and not that different in many respects from where we live today. It’s a place of natural beauty. There are trees in heaven, grass, mountains, meadows, rivers and lakes, clouds, and yes, animals. We will know our loved ones who are also in heaven, and we will enjoy friendships with one another, without all the drama and complications of our sin. It is a very real place. And Jean, as well as many others I’ve known and loved, are there today, in person, with Jesus.Will you be there?That’s a very serious question. I don’t know that there is more important question that anyone could ever ask you. Do you know if you were to die today, would you go to heaven? It’s something you can know, and something God wants you to know."This is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.” – 1 John 5:11-13 NLT