Graduation Day

The following essay was written in April, 2003. Heaven is even more real to me now than at the time I first penned the words.

We often quote the verse, "To live is Christ; to die is gain," but I'm not sure that even as Christians we
really believe it! We seem to see Heaven as some sort of "consolation prize" for not being able to stay here forever. If we can't go on living here on earth forever, at least we get to be with Jesus when we die. Hmmm...

I believe that God wants us to see our lives here as "bootcamp" in preparation for eternity. When a young soldier enters bootcamp, he expects to go through some hard things, things that don't seem fair, things that he doesn't always understand. His drill sergeant probably isn't really a mean, horrible person who enjoys tormenting others. He simply knows what it will take to make his recruits ready for service. After all, a soldier who wimps out on the battlefield isn't of any use to his army!

We took our son, Jonathan, to Jackson to join the military on April 7, 2002. It was a really hard time for him and for us, but God used that time to build him up and make a stronger man out of him. At the end of Jonathan's basic training, his dad and I were able to go to New Jersey for his graduation ceremony. What a special day of joy and celebration that was! I can assure you that my son got the biggest, longest hug of his entire life that day. We could not begin to contain our excitement or our pride in our son.

Less than a year later, on March 18, 2003, Jonathan went through an even greater graduation experience, and someday those of us who know the Lord will "graduate" too. With complete, unrestrained joy, we will celebrate as we go to be with the Lord. We will be held in the loving arms of our Heavenly Father, and hopefully hear these words: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord." (Matthew 25:21)

Meanwhile, we should expect to go through hard times down here. There are always going to be things in our lives that we don't understand, things that don't seem fair. But remember this: God knows exactly what it will take to get us ready for eternity as well as for the work He has for us to do here on earth. If our lives are too easy, we simply won't be equipped and prepared for our work in the field.

A Christian author whose writing has greatly influenced my life is A.W. Tozer. One line of a prayer that he wrote has stood out in my mind for a number of years. "Make Heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been," he said. I had been praying that simple prayer for about five years when my son passed away. I believe that Jonathan's death is part of God's answer to that prayer. Heaven is becoming more real to me every single day. I know that my son is there in God's awesome Presence. As much as I miss him, I would never choose to call him back. He knows in full what the rest of us can only know in part. Our training is not yet complete. For a little while longer, we must endure the challenges of "bootcamp". Someday soon, though, our graduation day will arrive. Let's rejoice in our trials and make the most of our training here so that we, too, will be ready to worship at the feet of our precious Lord. The biggest, longest "hugs" of our lives await us on our own graduation day!

**Tozer's prayer is taken from his book, "The Pursuit of God". The entire prayer reads,
"O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold on eternal things. Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good. Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. Amen."