Some years ago, my wife Grace and I had an amazing experience. At separate ends of the house at the same time, God spoke the exact same thing to both of us. We weren’t prepared for it, expecting it, or even desiring it. God told us our service in one place was done, we were “released”, and we then knew a new ministry assignment would be coming.
Uncertain where we would move to, we began praying and preparing. We did a lot of research on various cities and ministry opportunities. With the help of wise counsel, pastors in authority over us, we decided to move to the desert valley around Phoenix, Arizona. We continued our research to figure out what our new home would be like, got directions to drive the truck, complete with getting our dog there, and pushed through all the hassles that come with moving to a new home in a new place.
For the Christian, dying is really just moving. Like any move, it’s important to do some research so you can prepare yourself for your new home, get directions (which is basically following Jesus who is the way home) and pushing through the hassles of this life to move to your Forever Home in Heaven.
In the next few days we will learn together five ways that the Bible describes Heaven: a Kingdom, City, Home, Garden, and Party. For starters, you will need to use your imagination. When we are kids, it seems we can think in creative and faith-filled categories a lot easier than adults do.
Matthew 18:1-3 reports “The disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’”
Jesus is clear – to get ready for Heaven, you need a childlike faith. Childish faith is immature, irresponsible, and weak. Childlike faith is simple and strong – like my kids who trusted what their dad said and used their imagination a lot growing up.
The problem is, we tend to think that God is old like we are, so the older we get, the less we use our creative imagination to think of things like Heaven. Maybe God is young and creative, with an imagination like a kid since He’s not sinned and grown old and cynical? Maybe we are the old ones who need to return to being young and childlike. G.K Chesterton famously said, “It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
How is your imagination doing lately? Are you letting yourself dream of the goodness of God and what He has planned for you in Heaven? Or, are you so consumed with the pains, problems, and pressures of this life that your imagination has gotten a bit suffocated?