Heaven is a place..................

The other day when Tom and I were on our hike at Glen Eyrie we had our first moment of having to answer the question, "How many kids do you have?" We were chatting with some girls and it was an innocent question, but stopped us in our tracks.  I said, "Three!"  Tom quickly corrected me and said, "No, we have two."  I turned to him with tears forming and said, "No, we have one living in Heaven, one  just graduated from high school and one going to be a sophomore."  This is a conversation I had had in my head and with another mom whose child was living in Heaven now....but had not had with Tom yet. Once the girls left we finished that conversation and agreed that it is a natural response to say we have two living children, but we still have three children.


I have always been confident that when I die I would complete my life in Heaven.  I know this because at eight I "...confessed with my mouth that Jesus was my Lord and ever since have believed in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and I was saved"  Romans 2:8-9   Because "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16.  This has been the bedrock of my faith and yet, I have never really given Heaven a lot of thought. It was just the beautiful place I knew I would end up based on what scripture says and the outcome of my choices.  If I'm honest, I think I took Heaven for granted. I'm sorry, Lord. Now, my mind is heavenward often.  Why did it did it take the death of Ryan to get me to really think about Heaven?  I guess this is part of "making it worth the pain."  Now I'm very conscious of the fact that Heaven is a place and Ryan is living in that place.


John 14:1-4  "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust also in me.  In my Father's house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going."


There are a ton of scriptures that talk about the "place" called Heaven and I plan on spending some time this summer understanding them more.  So if Heaven is a place, then I can confidently say that my son is now living in that place.  He is there because he too confessed with his mouth and believed in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and was saved.  Oh how thankful I am that we gave Ryan these things to treasure in his heart and that he received them.  Because of this we can now know we will see him again someday.  Our story with Ryan isn't over....just paused until we meet up in his current place or residence, Heaven.




I'll meet you there!