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Tag: love

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 14

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 14

    As I walked through the brilliance of a field now bathed in light, through gentle caressing breezes which flowed over lily and daisy, I basked in the warmth of something I had never known: a love of God.

    I now embraced a love and tenderness toward Jesus I had never sought, but now had found.

    As I had journeyed from the grave and thought of these things, I had been completely unaware of a stream I had crossed in delight, when suddenly a little girl came running toward me, dragging along a beautiful woman also prancing along behind her.

    “Do you remember me?”

    I looked at her loving face and smiled.

    “You showed me your picture of Heaven,” I recalled as I smiled again.

    “This is my mommy!”

    I was certain.

    “Jesus sent us here to show you the way.”

    She beamed in that same love that she had said her mommy had every time she talked about Jesus.

    Now I saw this same love in the souls of both child and her beautiful mommy.

    “You know what?” she exclaimed.

    “JESUS said that we can call God, ‘Daddy.’”

    I smiled in joy and reached out my hand to her, THANKFUL that Jesus had sent this little girl to me with a picture of Heaven.

    +++

    A Picture of Heaven is dedicated to our beloved daughter, Rachel Katherine Harned, whose mommy died when she was seven. Rachel earned her Master of Arts in Christian Counseling from Wheaton College, currently works for a local hospice and will turn age 21 tomorrow, 21 September, 2013.

    Happy Birthday, Rachel.

    Your Daddy loves you.

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 13

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 13

    “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…” echoed the near-silent words of the graveside.

    I thought of the stark contrast of the graveside scene to the love and glory of the depiction of Heaven in the little girl’s picture.  I smiled with joy.

    “Amen,” the words of the graveside service confirmed in my heart.

    They now seemed to be speaking to my soul, rather than to the clutter of noise in my ears and my thoughts.

    Everyone left the graveside. I watched as the casket was lowered… and then I left.

    +++

    It had always seems too difficult to glorify God on earth. We really do love our sin and hate God.

    Yet that day and one picture had changed everything.

    Jesus was now real. Jesus was now: God in the flesh — flesh and blood, broken and shed for me. His love even for a sinner like me.

    I thought of the picture of Jesus carrying a lamb.

    I thought again of the weightier significance of a childhood song:

    Jesus loves me

    This I know

    For the Bible

    Tells me so.

     I am weak

    But He is strong

    It’s for His love

    That I now long.

    I think the kid’s verse is different, but this is what I was thinking.  It’s what I was singing in my heart.  And I had His joy – like a lamb warmly held in His arms.  I was safe from the world now.

    Jesus loves me, this I know… and I had a little girl to thank… a little girl with a picture of heaven.

    +++

    Conclusion to follow tomorrow; but in case you missed any chapters or want to SHARE: 

    A Picture of Heaven – prologue.

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 11

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 11

    (For those of you who missed our last episode, these are the roaming thoughts of a man at a funeral.)

    QUOTES from: “Ten Shekels and a Shirt,” Paris Reidhead, (1919-1992) Sermon on Judges 17, c.1945-47

    For a long time, I had thought about the missionary’s words, yet hadn’t thought of it again until now.  I had decided that I guess everybody knows about heaven, but I didn’t know if I really wanted to go there either.

    It’s not that I loved my sin… well, some of it… but heaven and hell didn’t seem real enough.

    I didn’t really get the picture of Heaven and I could not bear to even imagine any vision of hell.

    Then I thought about the corpse of my friend in the casket and had some comfort about the upcoming burial, instead of a cremation.

    And something else that missionary had said captured my mind, as I once again stared out on the cross and took in the sad music.

    * “Yes, will not the judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost and they are going to go to hell not because they haven’t heard the gospel.

    *They are going to go to hell because they are sinners who love their sin and because they deserve hell… I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen.”

    *“I sent you to Africa for my sake. They deserved hell, but I love them…

    And I endured the agonies of hell for them. I didn’t send you out there for them. I sent you out there for me.

    Do I not deserve the reward of my sufferings? Don’t I deserve those for whom I died?”

    —

     I thought about “Amazing Grace.”

    Hadn’t I heard that he was once captain of a slave ship?

    “A wretch like me,” “a wretch like me,” kept ringing in my head.

    I once was lost

    But now am found

    Was blind,

    But now I see.

    —