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Do You Think About Heaven?
When our children were smaller, Melanie and I spoke to them frequently about heaven. It is a challenge to address such an abstract concept with a child, but I remember wanting to create a clear, strong desire within them to want to go there.
So we talked about heaven being where God is, now trying to explain an abstract with an abstract (God is real though not visible; God lives in a real place though not a visible one.). But we hoped that the more they learned about God, the more they would want to be with Him, wherever and whatever that meant.
We talked to them about Jesus dying so that we could go to heaven one day. This, of course, necessitated explaining about sin, our disobedience that would bar us from heaven. But we explained in the simplest terms we could that Jesus’ death enabled God to forgive us, thus opening the door of heaven to all. We hoped that the more they learned about Jesus, the more they would want to be with Him, too.
Since the eternal fate of humans is only one of two potential outcomes, it is impossible to talk about heaven without talking about hell. We tried to explain in an age-appropriate way that hell was a place where neither we nor they would want to go.
To talk about heaven further meant discussing with our children the unknown time of Jesus’ return, that they and we should live so as to always be ready for that possibility. But this naturally led to the discussion of judgment that would come upon all mankind at the end of time. We tried to help them understand both accountability and mercy, that God sees and knows all but is willing to forgive the sins that we confess and take responsibility for.
In fact, to talk about heaven naturally connects to various related spiritual topics. As a perceptive sister recently wrote: “No matter what subject you approach with the kids, it always ends at the heaven point.” Well said. And in my response I observed: “We seem to speak much more to them about its reality/hope than we do to each other as adults.”
And that is what led to the title question of this article. It is a question we all must answer for ourselves. So is it true in your case? Personally, I don’t think of heaven enough. I get too bogged down with this-world duties and distractions. In some ways we adults need to go back to the basics, and one of those basics is seeing heaven as a reality in our mind’s eye. We don’t know many of the details of our future existence there, but not to worry. Wherever God, Jesus, the Spirit, angels and fellow saints are, that’s where we should want to be. Nothing else matters. All will be well. Sing to me of heaven; let me fondly dream …
