Celebrate the Small Things: A Visit to Heaven

I believe that earth is a mixture of heaven and hell. People, places and the experiences we have with them and at them. There are times when we feel like we are in Heaven and times when we feel like we are in Hell. However, these turn out be rare when compared with the 'in between' times, which to extend the analogy using a Roman Catholic concept, I will call purgatory: the waiting room. Most of us spend the majority of our time in the waiting room. True highs and lows, the agonies and ecstasies of life are not the norm, but that is exactly why we rejoice in the good times, and, armed with hope, we fight through the hard times. Last week was a week of highs.

Early Wednesday morning, I dropped my daughter at the airport to catch her flight back home to Wollongong via Sydney. The week she spent up here, in what some call paradise (dry season), Darwin, was so great. Wonderful on many levels and for many reasons.

I'm stoked that she came, and that we were able to do heaps of cool and fun stuff together. As Jessie  and I were working through the week, my daughter also had plenty of time to chill and enjoy being on her own: warm, relaxed and unhurried.

Last Saturday we drove to Litchfield National Park which is about 90 minutes from Darwin. It is just one of many places in and around Darwin where nature can be seen at her spectacular and beautiful best. One of the places inside the park we visited was Wangi Falls, and I can't imagine a more heavenly place. It was awesome. The photo, as is normally the case, does not do it justice.

I'm so grateful to have had this time with my daughter, who is now a young woman of whom I am immensely proud. But wait, there's more: this time next week, my mum will be here for a visit, and there's no need to say how much I am looking forward to that.

What's the most beautiful place you have visited? When have you felt like you were in heaven?

Destination Unkown

If you catch a train to work, you arrive at the train station knowing what time your train is due. It might arrive on schedule or late, or even be cancelled, but eventually you will get to your destination. The trip itself will be predictable and unless you have a good book, somewhat boring. After eight hours or so, you will ride the train home again. You paid for a return ticket because you don't want to stay at your destination. You want to go home.

Maybe you are about to take a long overdue and well earned vacation. You have chosen a destination from literally thousands of possibilities, a place where you really want to get away from it all and relax. You might catch a ship or fly, you'll find when your transport departs and from where, and you'll be there, on time and ready to go.

The time spent travelling to your holiday destination may be predicable and not especially enjoyable but when you get there you'll have bucket loads of fun. After a week or two you'll have to go home, and although you might want to stay on vacation a little longer, you can't. You bought a return ticket, so you have to go home. In fact, part of you wants to go home.

It doesn't matter where we go, or how long we stay, or for what reason we are travelling. Most of us will always want to go home eventually. Home is where we belong.

Life is often described as journey, and it is a good analogy. It is a voyage which we must all make and one for which we cannot purchase a return ticket. We do not choose to be born, and death is unavoidable. Much of what happens in between is beyond our control. Sometimes we feel as though we have very little choice, or worse; no choice at all.

We do however have a choice about the final destination of our souls. The Bible says that choice is simple. Hell is eternity without God. Heaven is eternity with God.

Of the two, heaven is the preferred destination, and the only way to get there is to choose to repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ. Climb aboard the train which is bound for the glory of our eternal home. It is where we belong.

Tamper Proof Seals

Have you noticed how ridiculously hard it can be these days to get what you want out of a bottle, a jar or a box? Whether it's food, medicine or simply a new toy, the glues, plastic and wires of packaging, or the wickedly engineered variety of tamper proof seals and caps; the everyday act of opening these vessels has been rendered a challenge of biblical proportions.

The manufacturers of these various products design their containers and packages to be difficult to open because they want to ensure that the only person who gets what's inside, is the person for whom the product is intended. Sometimes packaging is intensely intricate to protect the contents during travel. Fair enough, but sometimes it's so hard to get into what you want that you wonder if it's going to be truly worth the effort.

In the case of food and medicine, tamper proof seals are used to protect the contents from contamination. To ensure it's purity. When you buy a drink for example, and break the seal as you unscrew the cap, you can be reasonably sure that the liquid inside the bottle is exactly what the producer intended you to consume. No hidden nasties.

Because God is holy, nothing impure or sinful can enter his presence and so, in a sense, Heaven is sealed against contamination, and entering it requires much more than any mere human attempt to break the seal. You cannot force your way into heaven either by sheer volume of good deeds or by an extreme effort of will power or wishful thinking. Your "goodness" will never be sufficient.

The only way in is through faith; faith in the redeeming power of Christ whose body was broken and blood shed that we might be able to have a relationship with God. It was our Maker's plan that the tamper proof seal of Heaven could only be broken by a violent and sacrificial act. Jesus broke the seal by his death and resurrection. He made a way for us to enter the perfectly pure peace of Heaven.

The Other Side

Life after death. Heaven or hell, or nothing. What's on the other side? What do you believe is there? Does what you believe about what is there or not, actually change the reality? What is real? Where's your evidence that what you believe is real? How do you know what is true? How much of what you believe is based on irrefutable evidence? How much is based on what other people say? How much of what you believe is just stuff you want to believe?

If you see it with your own eyes, is it true? Hear it with your own ears? What if your senses deceive you? How can you know for sure? Maybe somebody else saw it. Is one witness enough to convince you? How many would be enough to prove it? What about the credibility of the witnesses? Do you believe them? Do you trust them? Do others trust them too? Who is right and who is wrong?

Answer all these questions, then tell me if you know everything. You don't know everything, so some things which you don't know are possible, aren't they?

What's on the other side? I don't know because I've never been there but I do know what I believe is there and my faith gives me strength.