Reasons To Believe

Driving home from church two weeks ago, Colson said this out of the blue:

"I want to live twice so I can die and see what it's like, and then come back and not die..."

So I said, "Well, if you go to heaven when you die, you won't want to come back because it will be so great." He replied, "How do you know it will be great?" I said, "Well, the Bible talks some about what heaven will be like. There will be no sadness and no pain, and you'll be happy all the time and you'll live forever."

Cole says, "Wow, so I'd have a good life there??" I said yes, you'd have a good life. But I told him that you can't get there unless you believe in God and ask him to come into your heart and obey him. I said that's how you become a Christian. Cole thought about that for a minute. "So if I become a Christian, I get to go to heaven and have a good life forever?". "Yes, Cole. But", I said, "you have to really mean it. You can't just be joking. God knows if you're serious or not."

"Well then I'm going to do that. Dear God, please come into my heart and let me be a Christian, because I want to have a good life in heaven with you."

Zachary pipes up, "I'm going to do it too! Dear God, please come into my heart so I can be a Christian and live forever. I love you for letting me be a Christian."

Cole says, "Ava, are you going to do it too?" Ava says, "Yes, but I'm going to do it in my room when I get home." "No, you have to do it now." "Fine....Dear God, please come into my heart and make me a Christian so I can come to heaven."

The funniest part of this story happened after all three kids made their professions of faith. Zachary just kept saying, to no one in particular, "Wow! I can't believe I'm a Christian! That's so cool. Can you believe I'm a Christian??!?" It was like his application had just been accepted at this cool super elite club that he never imagined he'd get into. I felt like he'd have said "I'll do it too!" to any interesting group I'd talked about. I could have asked if he wanted to be a Buddhist Monk, a Vegetarian Nudist, a Communist Guerrilla Soldier, and he'd have become one of those with the same enthusiasm as "Christian", just because it sounded so cool....it's a good thing this option came up before any of those others.

Ava kept quoting verses that proved the truth of what had just happened. She'd be quiet for a moment, and then say, "Oh yeah, it's like John 3:16 when it says "whoever believes in me will not perish but have eternal life!". Then she'd think for a while and say, "Right, like Romans 6:23, "the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus"...." She was connecting dots in her head all over the place, finding proof texts and making a Powerpoint presentation, ready to defend her position.

And Colson must have said 27 times, "Now I can have a good life when I'm alive, AND after I die!". He kept double checking with me to make sure that heaven was going to be really great, because God forbid he turn his life around only to end up somewhere so-so. If he's going to put out the effort to follow someone else's rules, the end result better be something fantastic. (Every time he talked about "the good life", he sounded like a beer commercial. )

We shall see if any of these professions are lasting ones, but they sure made for an entertaining car ride that day.