Heaven (in 75 words or less)

A magazine asked me a question.

How do you get to heaven?

Please answer in 75 words or less.

75 words or less?!

The problem is the question is ostensibly about salvation, but it’s wrongly framed.

Nevertheless I decided to take up the challenge.

Here is my answer in exactly 75 words.

Q. How do you get to heaven?

A. The simple answer is you die. Die in faith. Faith in Jesus Christ. But to go to heaven when you die is not the point of salvation. God’s primary purpose in salvation is not to take people from earth to heaven, but to bring heaven to earth through new creation. The fullness of salvation is the answer to the Lord’s prayer, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

There you have it. The best I can do in “75 words or less.”

My friend Steve Parsons has a song I like called, Heaven Is Coming.

Part of the lyrics go like this:

All around the world
There’s a guilty feeling
It’s in the way we live
And everybody knows
As all creation groans
Something’s gotta give
We serve the money man
We give him all we can
But he’s got feet of clay
Well every tide will turn
And only then we learn
Temporary things get washed away
Hold on, heaven is coming

Yes!

Heaven is coming.

I believe it.

I want to live so as to be part of the answer to the Lord’s prayer…

Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth
As it is in heaven

Amen

BZ

PS

Don’t ask me how we get heaven to earth in 75 words or less!

Maybe 75 thousand words.

But this is our true task.