Waiting At Heaven’s Gates

“In heaven, this little girl ran up to me and wouldn’t stop hugging me,” [Colton] said in a tone that clearly indicated he didn’t enjoy all this hugging from a girl.

—HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, 96

Todd

Let’s face it: about the only thing that can provide any comfort when we lose a loved one is knowing we will see that person again.

Oh sure, that’s not what they teach in counseling courses and psychology classes. When those classes deal with the subject of grief, they say families need funerals as a way to bring closure. For people who have no hope of heaven, that’s the best they can do: they say good-bye, and that’s it. All they have is memories.

If you don’t know God, I guess you can fall for that lie. But let me tell you, closure is man’s plan, not God’s. God has a much better plan. His plan is all about reunion, not closure.

If you need a reminder of that, think of what Colton said happened to him when he arrived in heaven: “This little girl ran up to me, and she wouldn’t stop hugging me.”

It took us awhile to figure it out, but soon we realized that, without a doubt, the girl who came running up to Colton was his big sister, the baby we had lost through miscarriage years earlier.

What a beautiful picture of heaven. It’s probably the image that has touched more hearts than anything else in Colton’s story. It’s also part of the answer to the question we’ve been asked over and over again: why do you think Heaven Is for Real has found such a large audience?

The fact is, pastors like me confuse people in church. We make heaven sound complicated. We use words people don’t understand and ramble on with complicated preaching while folks fall asleep in the pews. But here’s a little boy saying he went to heaven and met his sister there. The sister he didn’t know he had. When you read his story, you probably responded the same way Sonja and I did when we figured out who he was talking about: Wow.

All of us who have the hope of heaven have imagined what it’s going to be like to meet Jesus, as well as the joy of seeing beloved family members who have died. But consider this: it’s not just those loved ones you’ve cherished most on earth you’ll see but also some you may not have known you had! You may have siblings or other family members who died through miscarriage, abortion, or other tragedies that you don’t know about.

Can you imagine the joy we’ll feel at that reunion, the amazement we’ll have to maybe see a much bigger family than we thought we had? One man told us he’d always thought of himself as an only child because he was the only baby his mother was able to carry full term. She had suffered five miscarriages. He told us, “When I read your book I bawled, realizing I have five brothers and sisters in heaven.” Consider how many people’s families are going to be bigger in heaven than they are down here!

Here’s another thing I love thinking about as I picture the reunion I’ll have in heaven. It’s based on a detail about Colton meeting his sister that didn’t make it into Heaven Is for Real. Colton told us that when the angels and Jesus took him to heaven, his sister was waiting for him at the gate. He met his great-grandfather, Pop, in the throne room of God, but even before he walked through heaven’s gates, his sister was there waiting for him. Somehow she knew he was coming, and she came running out to meet him. Even though Colton wasn’t crazy about being hugged by a girl, after she let him know she was his sister, he realized how important this particular girl was.

Colton’s experience tells me that our daughter in heaven is aging; maybe by the time we get to see her, she’ll be a young lady. My own personal belief is that we will all be in our prime in heaven. Think about it: Jesus was thirty-three when he left earth and returned to heaven. Pop was a glasses-wearing older man when he died, but when Colton saw him he was young and clear-sighted. Sonja was two months pregnant when she miscarried the infant we now know was our daughter, but Colton saw her as a little girl.

So as I’ve imagined, dreamed, and prayed, this is the picture that keeps being rewound in my mind about my heavenly home-going: as I’m being flown by the angels to heaven and walking the last few steps with Jesus, a young lady comes running to greet me. She looks like Cassie but is a little bit like Sonja too, her dark hair streaming out behind her as she runs to give her dad a hug. I don’t think I’m going to have to look for her or try to find her. I believe she’s going to be there to meet me.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know which plan, God’s or man’s, is the one I’m choosing. Forget closure. I’m looking forward to that reunion in heaven. And I know my daughter is eager for that day too. Colton has already told us, “She can’t wait for you and Mom to get to heaven.”

Colton may not have appreciated being hugged by that little girl, but I’m looking forward to it more than I can describe.

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.

—Luke 20:38 NIV