When one of my favorite praise songs came on the car radio, I began singing along and soon got caught up in adoration of God. From the back seat, our five-year-old David began talking, so I tried to block out what he was saying, if for just a moment. (Those of you who don’t have children will think me hard-hearted. If you have little ones, you’ll understand my need for a moment of personal focus.) Then I realized what David was saying and immediately tuned in to it. “I love God,” he proclaimed. The he paused before saying, “I love God even more than Monty.”
Monty is David’s beloved dog, our pet Corgi. To say that he loved God more told me that David is beginning to “get it,” that no matter how much we may love our pets, or our family and friends, loving God needs to come first. God is the Source of all love after all, the very reason we can pour out our affection on those closest to us in the first place.
Sometimes we forget that. I know I do. The other day I was talking to a friend about heaven, and she said it bothered her to think that some of the people she cared most about might not be there. How, she wondered, could she be happy in heaven if they weren’t there? I’ve wondered that myself. While I was researching my book, Who Goes There? A Cultural History of Heaven and Hell, I discovered that thinking in such a way wasn’t always the case in American history. In previous centuries American Christians had a decidedly God-centered view of heaven—to be there was to enjoy the presence of God forever in unbroken, unsullied fellowship. That was the goal. In the last century that focus shifted, until the aspiration of the hereafter was to be in a perfect place with our loved ones, including our deceased pets. God often seemed incidental.
Dr. David Jeremiah addressed this recently as he pointed out something I never really noticed before in the interaction between Jesus and one of the thieves as they were dying. After the latter acknowledged that Jesus was who He claimed to be, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) I always focused on the thief going to heaven, but Pastor Jeremiah zeroed in on the “you will be with me” part. The important thing about heaven is being with Jesus. Likewise, when Paul was comforting afflicted believers in Thessalonica, he assured them that Jesus would return and take His own to heaven. “And so,” he concluded, “we will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
I think it’s natural for us to want to be in heaven with our loved ones, but it’s more important to keep in mind something Americans often forget. Heaven is for those who love and follow Jesus, and the main object of being there is to enjoy Him forever. Hopefully I can teach my child well, about that, too.
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