Recently, I have been reading a cute little book called “Heaven is for real”. It tells the account of a little boy who was undergoing a serious operation and went to heaven for a short time during it. It’s a really good book and very interesting. Everything he says about heaven is backed up with scripture in the book by his dad, a pastor of a small midwestern church. One thing that stuck out to me about the book is the little boy’s account of his sister in heaven. Apparently, the little boy’s mother had a miscarriage before the little boy was born and he meets this sister in heaven. He was unaware of the child before his visit to heaven, but she introduces herself to him while he is there. This shocks his parents. While they believed, like most of us, that this baby went to heaven when she passed away, it’s hard to come face to face with the idea. Having experienced two miscarriages myself, I always believed my babies were in heaven, but didn’t really think about them as anything more than babies. This sister was, according to the little boy, older. By his account everyone is around age 30 in heaven. I find it so hard to imagine my little babies being that old in heaven, but they might be. It’s comforting in a way though. The part that really struck me was when the little boy’s dad asked who was taking care of the sister in heaven and the boy says, “Jesus’ dad adopted her”. I always pictured my babies being cared for by my grandmother, uncle or dad who are in heaven, but to read this little boys account of God adopting babies who are lost to us, was overwhelming. I also find it extremely interesting that while God has adopted my two little ones who are in heaven and is caring for them, He has allowed me to adopt two orphaned little ones of His children here on earth that I might care for them in His place. It’s a really neat picture for me. And I find such comfort in knowing that I am the mother of not five little ones, but seven, as my other two wait for me in heaven. I sure am glad they have mansions on heaven because when all my children and I get there we will need that much space!

I don’t spend much time thinking about heaven in my daily life, but I should. This world is not my home, although most of the time I act like it is. I am more worried about what happens here then in the eternal life I have ahead of me. We have it backwards I would say. I find after reading this book on heaven my focus has shifted. I realize the treasures I have laid up for me there, two to be exact, so far. And those little children wait for me, their daddy and their siblings to come join them. What a wonderful thought. And now they have a great-grandfather who has recently joined them there. They are blessed, we are the ones who should be sorrowful, not for them but for ourselves as we endure this earth. If we shift our focus heavenward all these terrible things, even the most terrible of all, death, are no longer that bad. We have a hope and a future, not just here on earth, but in heaven and we should rejoice over that fact when we face the firey trials here in this place we are just passing through.