Perhaps you’ve noticed: A celebrity contracts XYZ disease, or loses a loved one to it, and here comes the pitch for battling it. “Let’s conquer XYZ in our lifetimes so that no one else has suffer!” You can even see it in the daily obituaries, where survivors of the less-than-famous request, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations to XYZ research.
 
The good Lord knows there are all kinds of horrible diseases to take us out. I’ve personally lost family and friends to everything from heart disease to breast, colorectal, kidney and ovarian cancer, from MS and lupus to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. You probably have, too. So which of these killers should we fight with all our hearts, souls, minds and, most importantly, money?
 
Here’s the problem. Even if we were to succeed in wiping out all these diseases, its victims would ultimately die of something else – because it’s death that’s our enemy, not the means of death. In fact, sooner or later, we are all going to die of something, leaving these earthly bodies behind to spend eternity in heaven or hell. What sense does it make to pour our time and money into fighting earth’s inevitable end, while virtually ignoring the reality of eternity?
 
Fortunately, there’s a solution: experiencing death as the doorway to everlasting joy in heaven. We need simply repent of what God says is sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to have paid our sin penalty on the cross. (Not that it’s easy; as Jesus is quoted as saying in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” But it is simple.)
 
You say you don’t believe this? You hold to some other scenario, such as “we cease to exist upon death” or “everyone goes to heaven except for Hitler” or “no one can possibly know what happens after death”?
 
But what if you’re wrong? Considering that we’re talking about eternity, don’t you think it might conceivably be worth investigating the subject as ardently as you plan your next week-long vacation? I beg you to do so before it’s too late; the Lord has promised that you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart (see, e.g., Jeremiah 29:13).  
 
If you’re already a born-again believer, great! I look forward to seeing you here, There or in the air. In the meantime, how about reserving your charitable contributions for efforts that are making a difference for all eternity? 

Since I became a born-again Christian in 2000, I've thought incessantly about how to reach the lost – especially the young. I’ve finally come to the conclusion that there are two approaches that might have opened my eyes many moons ago.
 
SELECT THE RIGHT SOURCE
 
First, I might have been greatly impressed had someone I admired taken the time to discuss topics such as these with me:

• Absolute truth. We all know it’s just plain wrong to murder, steal, and lie. No matter what the naysayers may tell you, absolute truth does prevail in every realm -- physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Do not listen to those who tell you it doesn't.
• Can’t see it? So what? Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it does not exist. Consider love, hate, joy, depression, oxygen, helium, gravity, and wind. We may see the effects of each, but not the thing itself. So when someone tells you that God doesn't exist because we can’t see Him, don't you believe it.
• There is a Creator. And there’s a stunning amount of readily available evidence to prove it.
• The Bible is true. Ditto on the evidence front, starting with science and prophecy.
• This life will end. Your loved ones will die someday. So will you. Here's how you can make sure you'll all be spending eternity together in eternal joy.

It would’ve been nice if these things had been taught in the Sunday school my parents dragged me to every week, until I escaped to boarding school. Although maybe they were addressed; I usually spent those classes daydreaming about more interesting subjects, like horses or boys. But there were some older kids and adults I thought the world of, and probably would have listened to – even if the subject had been God.
 
So that's one possibility: Reach out to the lost one-on-one, via Christians whom they admire. 
 
TEACH THE CONTROVERSY
 
A professor at a nearby Lutheran school routinely promotes teaching students both sides of any worldview issue. His reasoning: even those well-instructed in Christian truth will one day walk out into a big wide world that mocks this truth, substituting clever lies disguised as the real deal. It’s up to the Christian community to help young people understand those lies within the context of truth, to prevent their faith from being shaken.  
 
For instance, don't simply teach young people that the Grand Canyon was carved out by the Genesis Flood. Do so of course, but also:

• Explore the world’s old-earth explanations with them, pinpointing where each one falls into absurdity.
• Help them to consider how even a mighty little river could possibly have carved out this vast canyon, and weigh that explanation against the likelihood that it was formed quickly by a cataclysmic hydraulic event.
• Show them photos of the Canyon’s curved rock layers and ask how those layers could possibly have been caused by slow erosion and deposition; then show them how easily the Flood explains such formations.  
• Ditto on the subject of fossils, so often advanced by evolutionists as proof of their God-free old-earth theories.  

 
And that’s just one narrow slice of the discipline-wide science supporting the biblical worldview. I'll bet the same approach could be taken with virtually any subject of interest to a particular young student. For instance, a budding historian might be interested in comparing biblical accounts to what the world says about the evolution of languages. Or perhaps he or she would like to explore the root causes of Nazi Germany, and what secularists say on that score vs. what the Bible suggests.
 
THE BOTTOM LINE
 
So there you are – two possible ways to help the vulnerable young grow up to be solid Christians, well-prepared to help their own children follow suit. If you have further suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Click here to email me.  

Is there anyone in America who hasn’t heard the story of Chicken Little – the chick upon whose head or tail something falls and who immediately erupts into full-blown “THE SKY IS FALLING!” panic?
 
It’s a folk tale that’s either a couple hundred years old or a couple thousand, depending upon who’s telling its history. And there are many different versions out there today, featuring catalysts from an acorn plummeting onto Chicken Little’s noggin to a leaf drifting onto her tail. There are apparently numerous endings available, too, most of them featuring an evil fox eating Chicken Little’s friends for supper.
 
But whatever its denouement, the point of the story is obvious: Don’t ever panic over foolish fears based on sketchy claims from unreliable sources. And for Pete’s sake, if you simply can’t control your terror, keep it to yourself; please don’t infect others with it.
 
Whichever positions you've taken in the current pandemic debates, you have to admit that the world has ignored the lessons of Chicken Little, allowing itself to become overwhelmed by fear.  And if certain observers are correct, it’s only the start; a much more devastating virus may already be on its way, along with another surefire vaccine or two. Grab the kids and head for the hills, Ma!
 
This is not to say that we should just ignore diseases and other dangers. And naturally we should take reasonable precautions: If you’re sick, stay home and resist the temptation to go wandering around a nursing home. If you’re well but have an acquaintance who is sick, don’t pay her a friendly visit until she’s better. And if you’re a healthcare worker, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly between patients, just as Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis advised in 1847.  
 
Of course, many people have good reason to be hysterical over this current pandemic, as well as a host of other potentially deadly dangers. Because the truth is this: We are all going to die, sooner or later. And for many people, death will be the gateway to an eternity in hell, where “there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth,” as Jesus warned multiple times.
 
It doesn’t have to be that way. As any born-again believer in Jesus Christ can tell you, God has made a way for every last person to be saved for all eternity. Here's how: Repent of what He has defined, in His word, as sin; and then trust in Jesus to have paid the penalty for that sin, in full, on the cross. If you do this, you can look forward to heaven as your eternal home, and perfect joy as its endless theme.
 
These are essentially our choices: Embrace the world’s fear and cling to this life as long as possible. Or relax: Embrace the Lord and His plan of salvation. Trust in Him to be in control of every facet of your life. And get ready for an eternity that will be glorious beyond our imaginations.     
 
Don’t believe it? That’s your privilege, of course. But as they say, “Think while it’s still legal.” Investigate the subject for yourself; here’s one place to start. If you do so with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, you’re guaranteed a happily ever after.
 
Hope to see you there!

I didn’t think it would ever happen. But just three short years after falling in love with the Adoniram Judson biography To the Golden Shore, another book is threatening to overtake my heart’s literary #1 spot.
 
That book is Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas (Harper One, 2007). It’s the story of the horrific African slave trade, and the institution of slavery throughout the British empire, and one man’s epic 20+-year battle to abolish both.
 
Over the years, I had read and heard a great deal about slavery, starting with the enslavement of the children of Israel by the ancient Egyptians, as described in the Bible’s book of Exodus. And of course you can hardly grow up in America without hearing many accounts of the institution’s abominations in the South.
 
But earlier this year, I learned a great deal more from Jonathan Aitken’s stunning biography John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Crossway, 2007). Then, to further my education, Maranatha Baptist University’s Dr. David Saxon and his wife Jamie recommended that I read this Wilberforce biography.  
 
After sketching out the content of the book for me, Jamie Saxon added an irresistible incentive: “You’ll love his writing.” And indeed, my review of this book really has to start with a mention of the extraordinary writing of Eric Metaxas.
 
I always mark up my books, but normally only to highlight important facts. Not this time: At least half of my mark-ups are to call attention to particularly elegant language, or especially poignant observations, or even the author’s wonderful sense of humor (amazingly, there’s plenty to laugh about even in this dead-serious book about the abolition of slavery – more proof of Metaxas’s unique gift, I suppose). You’ll find just a few examples of his skill in the excerpts below.
 
So, in a nutshell, William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was a brilliant and wealthy British politician and Member of Parliament who spent the first years of his career as a party animal; became a born-again Christian in his mid-20s; and eventually, having heard about the ghastly ways that African slaves were treated during and after their transport to the New World, embraced the cause of abolition.
 
Metaxas’s account of Wilberforce’s conversion to Christ is alone worth the price of the book. What Wilberforce would later call his “Great Change” didn’t happen overnight. But it seems that a key event in this process was a horse-drawn chaise trip he and his equally brilliant friend Isaac Milner took from Nice to Calais, over 1200 miles of winding, unpaved roads in heavy snowfall. To occupy themselves, they read and discussed Philip Doddridge’s 1745 book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Writes Metaxas of this journey:
 
“The extraordinary felicity of this scene, of these incandescent minds meeting on this subject of eternal things, sailing in their horse-drawn coach through the mountains, seems like something out of a fairytale, one in which a gnome and a giant on a journey in a sphere of glass and silver discover the Well at the World’s End, and drinking a draught therefrom learn the secret meaning at the heart of the universe.” (pp. 47-48)
 
It was this journey that apparently changed Wilberforce’s heart once and for all:
 
“Anyone who had been privy to his thoughts at this time would have wondered what had happened to the gay, carefree fellow of just a few months before -- the one … who had thought nothing of shaving the truth here and there during his speech in the castle yard at York to ‘tear the enemy to pieces’ and elevate himself to the highest parliamentary place in the land; who ate and drank and danced and sang till the wee hours of hundreds of mornings. Where had that fellow gone?” (p 49)
 
It’s uncertain exactly how this new creature in Christ first came to make the abolition movement his life’s work. Ex-slave-trader, beloved pastor and “Amazing Grace” author John Newton was a family friend, and no doubt his conversation had something to do with it. And along the way, Wilberforce also befriended a number of other folks who would play key roles in his campaign.
 
It’s possible that Wilberforce’s attention was first arrested by the accounts he heard and read of “the Middle Passage” – the second leg of slave ships’ trip from England to Africa, Africa to the New World, and then home to England again. It was in Africa that the English traders kidnapped men, women and children, often with the help of local chieftains, and packed them into ships without regard to their health or comfort.
 
The conditions were unimaginably awful: overcrowding so excessive that in some cases the captives were piled on top of each other; no fresh air; suffocating heat; and relentless stench. Many died outright during the ensuing weeks, before being unloaded on the other side of the Atlantic. And in at least one case known as the Zong Incident, 131 sick and even relatively healthy slaves were simply tossed overboard into the ocean to drown or be devoured by sharks. The reason: the captain would be rewarded for his work by the value of his cargo at auction, and sick slaves didn’t fetch much; but dead slaves were covered in full by insurance.
 
Metaxas quotes extensively from some of the first-person accounts of the atrocities. I won’t repeat any of them here. I can’t. You must read them yourself. Try not to weep.
 
But it must have been such accounts that transformed Wilberforce and his companions into passionate enemies of slavery. And thanks in part to their zealous efforts to capture the hearts of British citizens, the abolition movement gained strength throughout England in the last quarter of the 18th century.
 
It’s important to recognize the spiritual nature of this movement. As the author notes, “The acutely Christian character of the British abolitionist movement is undeniable, for its leaders were all consciously acting out of the principles of their deeply held faith.” (p 96)
 
Yet some of abolition’s enemies claimed to be Christians, too. Metaxas comments: “For this the leaders of the Church of England, not merely the people in its pews, were to blame. The Church of England at the time had a great deal of money invested in West Indian plantations and did not make any connection between the tenets of the Christian faith and abolition. Making that connection fell to outsiders – to the Methodists and other so-called Dissenters, such as the Quakers and Moravians.” (p 96)
 
(An aside: the author’s discussions of England’s “retreat from serious Christian faith” in the 18th century is one of the fascinating subplots in this book.)
 
At any rate, Wilberforce became convinced that he must lead the charge against the slave trade in Parliament. For “if, as [he] thought, God Himself was calling him to this task and he shrank from it, God too could find another to do it, and surely would.” (p 113)
 
It was a highly complicated, heart-wrenching and endlessly frustrating era for Wilberforce, and it involved domestic and international political machinations that would surprise even the careful observer of 21st century American politics. It consumed him for over two decades, robbing him of his peace and his health as he approached Parliamentary victory again and again, only to suffer defeat after debilitating defeat.
 
Wilberforce received a great deal of encouragement along the way, however. For example, in perhaps the last letter he ever penned, just a few days before his death, John Wesley wrote to Wilberforce. He said, in part, “…if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.”
 
Metaxas’s comment on this letter: “What an encouragement it must have been to read these words from the battle-scarred veteran, who had fought the good fight, and run with patience the race, and had kept the faith … And so William Wilberforce now ran, cheered on by a great and growing cloud of witnesses.” (p 145)
 
Wesley’s last epistle arrived in February, 1791. It would be almost exactly 16 years later, in 1807, that the battle would finally be won, with abolition secured in Parliament by a resounding vote of 283-16.
 
Throughout the painfully long proceedings, Metaxas reports, Wilberforce “had sat composed, quite composed.” But when the final vote was tallied, and the rejoicing began, “he was overcome, and taking his head in his hands, he wept.” (p 210)
 
As we watch the celebration unfold, the reader rejoices with the author, and very belatedly, with all those who made this victory possible. It was over! Surely the work was only beginning, but the strongest enemy had been defeated! Hallelujah!
 
But wait: “Let’s not run ahead just yet,” Metaxas says. “Let’s behold [Wilberforce] here for a little while longer, here in this Moment of moments, a man allowed that highest and rarest privilege, to be awake inside his own dream. Seated there, head in his hands, humbled and exalted in his humility, we have the apotheosis of William Wilberforce.” (p 211)
 
And there’s more. Oh, so much more! But my review is already way too long. You simply must read this book. Don’t delay. Read To the Golden Shore, too, and then you can decide for yourself which one is more life-changing.  

In the meantime, I have to run and order another book by Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer, perhaps, or maybe Martin Luther ... 

I woke up this morning thinking about what sort of post I would write if this were my parting shot – if my life on this earth were to end today, through death or rapture.
 
And immediately this question popped into my head: why won’t you listen? Directed, of course, to those of the “don’t talk to me about Jesus” persuasion. Those who assume that, if there’s an afterlife, they’re good enough to be welcomed in the best places. Those who feel someone walking over their graves whenever a genuine Christian enters the conversation. Or the room.
 
A good question for me, since I spent 30 years of my adult life in that camp. Why did I automatically turn off and turn away from any follower of Jesus Christ?
 
Here are a baker's dozen of reasons for rejecting the Savior and His ambassadors, along with brief counterarguments from biblical Christianity. They’re presented in no particular order; they re-arranged themselves day by day depending on what evidence I was ignoring.
 
Are they perhaps among your arguments against Jesus?

1. Christians are boring. And I just want to have fun.  

This was one of my biggest surprises once I’d embraced Christianity. I had merely been seeking the truth about the afterlife, figuring I would probably be giving up my good times if the Bible turned out to be true.
 
Boy, was I wrong. I didn’t know what “fun” was until I became a child of God. In fact, since repenting and trusting in Christ in 2000, I have laughed longer and harder and more regularly than ever; Christians can be a scream!
 
But that’s just the beginning. For instance, I am daily lost in the beauty of God’s creation and His word, the Bible. I have been absolutely blown away by what I’ve learned in lectures exploring real science and what it reveals about the Creator. And I have been deeply comforted through life’s greatest sorrows, traumas and fears, with God Himself restoring me to His joy in practically no time at all.
 
In short, thanks to Jesus, I’ve lost nothing, and gained everything.

2. Science has disproved the Bible.  

This objection turned out to be laughable; just the opposite is true. In reality, the Bible reveals in passing many facts about our universe that have only been “discovered” by secular science in recent years. Just two examples: the sun having its own orbit and the ocean floors having mountains and valleys. And don’t get me started on the fact that the Bible said the earth is round about 200 years before Greek mathematician Pythagoras stumbled across the idea.
 
For details, read Heaven Without Her, or virtually any of the books recommended here. Or visit Answers in Genesis or the Institute for Creation Research. If you approach any of these resources with an open mind, you will be astounded, and you may be forever changed.

3. You can’t possibly know the future.  

You’re right, I can’t. But as the Creator of the world and of time itself, God knows perfectly well what will happen.  And He has told us everything we need to know about it via His word.
 
In fact, one-third of the Bible is predictive prophecy. Most of it has already been fulfilled with 100% accuracy. And the rest concerns our world’s last days; we’re now seeing it all unfold with stunning speed and precision.

4. Biblical prophecy is nothing more than a lucky guess.  

Consider this: There are more than 450 Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah. As the Dead Sea scrolls confirmed, all were written long before Jesus’ birth. Yet Jesus fulfilled every last one of these prophecies to the letter.
 
The late Peter Stoner, Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College, calculated the chances of one person fulfilling just 48 of these prophecies at 10 to the 157th power. This is a number beyond our comprehension; some scientists have calculated the number of electrons, protons and neutrons in the entire universe at 10 to the 79th power. 
 
No lucky guesses here, folks.

5. Biblical prophecy is matched by people like Nostradamus and Jeane Dixon.
 
Not by any stretch of the imagination. You can look it up.
 
The fuzzy wuzzy predictions of 16th century mystic Nostradamus took the form of vague and unsettling quatrains that today’s readers tear apart and reassemble in vain attempts to make them look authentically prophetic.
 
And Jeane Dixon? Turns out she got an awful lot wrong, including warning that World War III would begin in 1958. She and her fellow mid-20th-century psychics didn’t even get half of their predictions right, according to those who track such things; coin flips and Magic 8-Balls may well be more accurate.

6. I’m a good person; I’ll be welcomed in any heaven.  

Are you really? How well have you kept the Ten Commandments? Have you ever lied? Stolen? Lusted or been unjustly angry with another human being (Jesus’ definitions of committing adultery and murder in the heart)? Have you ever coveted something belonging to someone else?
 
Or, if you reject the Ten Commandments, then consider this: How much time have you spent in the last month justifying your behavior towards another human being? Saying, for instance, that he deserved your wrath because of the awful things he did, or that she needed to hear the rumors even if they were painful to her? Hint: If your God-given conscience is clear, you don’t ever need to justify yourself. If it’s not, then you are not a good person; you are just like the rest of us.  

7. There is no life after death.  

How do you know that? “I feel it in my gut” is not proof. Neither is “someone I admire told me” or “I read it in a book” or “Richard Dawkins says so and he’s really smart.”
 
You’re taking a big risk if you’re counting on sources like these.

8. Christianity is way too judgmental.  

What you mean is that Christianity teaches against the guilty pleasures that you and your friends enjoy, right? Or, as I put it in my atheist days, “the God of the Bible just wants to ruin our good times.”
 
Huge subject, well worth exploring in great depth. For the moment, let me just say this: It turns out that every biblical command was issued for your own good, and obeying them is the only way to achieve peace, contentment and joy in this life.
 
I know, it surprised me, too.

9. The Bible was written by men – ancient, ignorant men.  

This is true, at least the “men” and “ancient” part of it. There were around 40 of them writing over about 1500 years, and they were each inspired by the Holy Spirit.
 
How can we be sure of that? Because they each revealed things that they could not possibly have known – the aforementioned scientific and prophetic facts, for example. They could only have known these things if they were inspired by someone outside of time. By God Himself.

10. I prefer _____________ (the New Age, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, whatever).
 
So what? Are you interested in truth or fashion? (And, I should add, just try to find proof of any system of belief other than Christianity. It doesn't exist.)

11. Christianity oppresses women.  

Another laughable charge.  The Bible is set among ancient cultures that were practically misogynistic by today’s standards. Examine how women are treated in its pages. And observe Jesus’ behavior towards women. There's nothing oppressive about it. 
 
Yes, God established sex-based roles and rules for the family and the church. And He instructed women to be submissive to their husbands. But at the same time, He commanded men to honor their wives. Seems like a good deal to me. 
 
Besides, it’s His creation. He had a right to set things up however He wanted to.

12. With all the suffering and evil in the world, this God of yours is either powerless or evil Himself. More likely, He doesn't exist at all. 

The Bible gives us many reasons that the Lord allows great tribulation in our lives. He can use it to guide or discipline us. He can use it to accomplish His purposes or display His power. He can use it to impact our loved ones. And He can use it to get our attention, especially if we are unbelievers.  
 
If you are suffering today – physically, emotionally, financially, or spiritually – perhaps God is trying to get your attention. Rest assured that He knows about it, controls it, and is at work in your life. Please understand that this may be the only way He’ll ever be able to get your attention, and therefore to save you for all eternity – putting you irrevocably on the path to heaven, as promised in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Will it work? That’s up to you. I pray it will!

13. My loving god would not send anyone to hell.  

You’re right, he or she would not. That’s because he or she does not exist. Am I wrong? Where’s your proof?
 
The God of the Bible is love. He doesn’t send people to hell. Instead, He made a way for every human being to spend eternity with Him in heaven – a way that requires us to simply repent of what He says is sin, and trust in Jesus Christ to have paid our entire sin debt on the cross. Do that sincerely, and you’ll be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ for all eternity.
 
Is that too much to ask of you? Then you’ll have to stand in front of Him in judgment one day, and explain why you’re perfect enough to be allowed into His perfect heaven. You won’t be able to. And then there will be only one possible destination for you for all eternity.
 
That’s not even the
tip of the iceberg
 
Entire books can be and have been written on each of these subjects. Why, I could probably write entire books on them myself, off the top of my head, so obvious is truth once you start seeking it.
 
Do these points cover your key arguments against Christianity? Or do you have some that are uniquely your own? If so, I guarantee that committed Christians everywhere would love to hear them. Please feel free to insert them in the comments section below.
 
In the meantime, just consider this: There is not an argument against Christianity that cannot be easily addressed and overcome. I undoubtedly suspected this as an atheist, which is probably why I worked so hard to avoid anything even remotely related to Jesus.  
 
I have many regrets in this life, but the biggest is that I didn’t seek truth when I was young.
 
The good news is that, as long as you’re still breathing, it’s not too late. But don’t miss that final deadline. As Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Don't wait another day. 

"The summer before my ninth birthday – the summer of Nikita Khrushchev and the Berlin Wall and all the circumstances that would turn [doomsday neighbor] Mrs. G. into a terrifying false prophet – my parents traveled to Europe for the summer with my sister Andy, then 17. Since I was too young to appreciate such a trip, they took me to Madison, about 150 miles southwest of Green Bay, to spend the weeks with their dear friends Arlene and George.
​
"In most ways, it was a heavenly place to await their return. Arlene and George were among my favorite people in the whole world, kind and loving and happy just like my own parents, and they never failed to lavish some of their love on any children in their vicinity. They lived in a tree-lined neighborhood very much like our own, full of charming older homes and kids and family dogs, in a neat white two-story house.

"They had one daughter who was still at home – a girl who was probably an exotic 13 or 14 at the time, and who was much nicer to me than I would have been to a summer-long intruder. And Arlene, no doubt anticipating how homesick I would be, gave me a gift every Friday to help me celebrate making it one week closer to Mom and Dad’s return. I’ve forgotten what almost all of those gifts were, except for an Etch-a-Sketch – a drawing toy so new that I’d never even seen one before, so enchanting that I spent the rainy days of summer learning how to draw with it.

"Arlene even found a playmate for me. Her name was Maureen. She was my age and lived up the hill from Arlene’s house. Her house was exotic, too: it had no upstairs, and her backyard was all wooded, and there were these beautiful flowers in front, in a bed framed by split-rail fencing; I remember in particular stunning orange blossoms with freckles, which my new friend called tiger lilies.

"Maureen and I spent lots of long summer days together, exploring the neighborhood and the woods beyond, playing games like Sorry and Old Maid, piecing together jigsaw puzzles, packing lunches and taking off on our bikes – the daughter let me use hers! – to destinations unknown. You could do that in those days; adults didn’t worry if the children in their charge disappeared for six or eight hours, as long as they were home in time for supper.

"Thanks to this wonderful, warm cast of characters, it was one of the best summers of my childhood. Except that I wasn’t at home with my parents, and I ached for them. And so it was also the only unhappy summer of my childhood. Good and bad, rolled into one.
​
"In the end, though, the good outweighed the bad, because I knew the bad would come to an end. I had no doubt that my parents would come get me eventually and take me home, and in fact when I thought about that, when I pictured them pulling up in front of Arlene’s house, I could barely contain my joy.

"It’s kind of the way I feel now that I’m a heaven-bound Christian whose parents and Granny have gone on ahead.

"Others, even some other Christians, seem to think I’m crazy and quite possibly suicidal. But I am neither. They simply don’t understand, maybe because they never had a summer-of-1961 experience like mine.

"Which is too bad, because it’s a totally thrilling way to live.

"On the one hand, I am surrounded by people I love – a fine husband and extended family, an array of good friends, a church family whose loving-kindness is astounding. I live in a nice house with a big garden and all the pets anyone could ever want. I enjoy my work most of the time – especially since my commute is about 10 steps from the kitchen and it can be traversed in warm slippers or bare feet, depending on the season. And I spend much of my free time studying mind-blowing books about all things related to the Lord, most importantly the Bible.

"What more could I want?

"I honestly can’t think of a thing – not even my friends’ lake-side cottages or fat retirement accounts or exotic vacations could add anything to my joy. Not even another Super Bowl season for the Packers.

"Life is good.

"And yet.

"My mom and dad and Granny aren’t here. They’ve already departed for our new Home, leaving me behind, unable to get to them under my own power.  And so I am at times consumed with a new kind of homesickness – a longing to be with them in the Lord’s kingdom, a land where there are no tears, no aches and pains, no disease or death, hunger or thirst, just Jesus and joy that we can’t even imagine in our earth-bound 3D hides.

"And so I ache once again. And once again it’s mostly a good ache, one that’s accompanied by butterflies and by capital-H biblical Hope – not merely a wish but a confident expectation about what is to come.

"Life is indeed good. But it’s going to get a whole lot better one day. And it’s all going to happen in the twinkling of an eye."

​From Heaven Without Her, pages 249-25