“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God,
believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so,
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am,
there you may be also” (John 14:1).
In my book, Swallowed by LIFE, I tell the story of Yocheved Chalodney and Sam
Dobin, who were married in a village near Smolensk, Russia. Three years later,
Dobin immigrated to the United States. He thought he could bring his wife,
child, and baby soon. Instead, World War I broke out.
The baby was my Jewish friend, Ruth. For six
years, no mail came to the Russian village. War was so close artillery fire
vibrated the windows.
In
the fall of 1921, the hoped-for letter from Sam arrived, and soon the family
landed in New York, ready to go to Pueblo, Colorado, to a home they had never
seen.
Although
eight years passed before she could go, Yocheved believed her husband was
preparing a wonderful place for them and he did.
When
Jesus told his disciples he was going away and would prepare a place for them,
Thomas said, “I don’t know how to get there” (See John 14).
“You know me,” Jesus said, “So where I go you know, and the
way you know.”
A
high school student asked me in my Sunday school class, “Will we play
basketball in heaven? It won’t be any fun because nobody would make mistakes.”
I
prayed silently for wisdom then said, “Keith, I don’t know. But I believe
heaven will be so much better than what we have on earth that it’s like
comparing being a child to becoming an adult. When you’re a child, you play
with dolls and toy cars. But when you are an adult you have real babies and
drive a real car.
“When you were a kid, if an adult told you
that you can’t play with dolls or toy cars after you get ‘big,’ you’d scream
and howl and decide you don’t want to grow up. But once you do, you discard the
toys, because you have a real car and a real baby. I think that’s the way heaven will be. It
will fulfill our every desire and give us so much joy what we had here will
seem like child’s play.”
The Bible tells us heaven will exceed
earthly experiences. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). But the next verse says God has revealed things about
heaven to us by His Spirit.
Yocheved
knew Sam, so she believed he was preparing a nice home. If we know Jesus, we
are assured heaven will be wonderful.
According
to scripture, in heaven we’ll see Jesus and attend “The Marriage Supper of the
Lamb.” We’ll experience the Father’s love, and attend massive worship services
with great rejoicing. We’ll visit heroes of the faith and recognize friends and
loved ones. We’ll enjoy a custom home, probably lavish like the streets and
gates.
God will wipe away our tears and there
shall be no death; nor sorrow, nor crying; no more pain, for the former things
are passed away (Revelation 21:4).
What a place!
©Ada Brownell 2012
Swallowed
by Life - Free for Kindle Today!
By Ada
Brownell
Do you know you
are more than a physical body? Evidence shows our body is constantly dying and
being renewed cell by cell and about every seven years is totally rebuilt –
even our bones. We start as an egg about the size of a dust mite, yet we were
the same person in the womb we are today. We may lose limbs, gain and lose
weight, have vital organs removed and mechanical or transplanted parts inserted
and we’re still the same person. Inside us is life, and a soul and
spirit which were designed by God to live forever.
Swallowed by
LIFE is subtitled “Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal.” The book
speaks about this mystery; how you know what to believe; the wonder of life with
all its electrical systems; the awesome truth about cell death and
regeneration; brain death, and other mysteries of the change from mortal to
immortal; where we go when our body dies; resurrection; a glimpse at what we
will do in heaven; God’s mercy after
man’s rebellion when He promised a Redeemer way back in Genesis to deliver us
from death; and leaving a legacy here.
Questions and
answers are included for study groups.
Ada’s Blog:
http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com
Paperback: http://amzn.com/1466200936
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