Going Home

I pushed myself back from my computer and started to stand up. I changed my mind and sat back down. The last few months had been grueling to say the least. Every project seemed to blow up or disintegrate. Hardware and software problems continued to mount. Getting older with the problems of my advancing age only made matters worse. Yet, I had many blessings to count. I was alive while I had unfortunately seen many people my age and younger pass on.

I finally stood up from my computer and turned toward the office door. Suddenly, without any warning, bright lights with every color of the rainbow surrounded my office door. What was beyond the door was more rainbow lights continually moving in some kind of kaleidoscopic fractal fashion. The beauty of the light was stunning. I first thought my wife had put up late Christmas lights of some kind. We always have a little Christmas décor up no matter the time of year. I kept wondering how she did this light display as I stepped through the doorway.

When I stepped through the doorway everything suddenly changed. On the other side of the doorway I was no longer in my home. I was in a place where I grew up, a place called Memory Valley. The road in front of the house was called Memory Lane, sort of a joke to the locals. I was standing in the middle of green beauty. The sycamore, maple, willow, and oak trees were full of leaves. I was standing only a few feet from Sandy Rock River. The river was a deep green and the fish were jumping. My first thought was I must be in heaven, but I changed my mind because I did not see angels or God. It was difficult to gauge the time of day because there were no shadows like the sun produces. I looked down at my watch but my watch was gone along with my wedding band. I also noticed my wrinkled aging skin wasn't old and wrinkled anymore. My skin was young, as it was in my teens or twenties. I felt terrific. I had no worries. I had no fears. Every part of my being was steeped in comfort and joy. I looked up at the house which was built on an embankment about one story above where I was standing. Behind the sliding glass doors in the house, leading out to the sun porch I could see my mom. I was overcome because mom had passed away decades before. I thought again how I must have gone to heaven, because I was in such a perfect place and mom was living there. There was a steep incline to walk from the river up the embankment to the house. Dad and I had made getting up the steep incline easier by building steps and ramps when the folks first bought the house in the late 1950's. I walked up to the house and turned the corner of the garage. I was facing the kitchen door and saw mom inside the kitchen. I started to choke with emotion but in an instant the pain of days gone by vanished and my heart was filled with joy. Mom saw me standing outside the door and said, "C'mon in. I made your favorite pies, cream and black raspberry." I laughed and walked over to the kitchen screen door and opened the door. I stepped inside the kitchen and was greeted by the sweet aroma of cream pie and black raspberry pie being baked in the oven. If this wasn't heaven, I was very, very close. A million thoughts were going through my mind.

The kitchen and all the cabinets were just like I remembered from my youth. Mom was so much younger than I remember. I looked all around the kitchen and noticed the wall clock was missing. Mom said, "It will be a short while before the pies are cool enough to eat." So I poked my head through the door going into the dining room and noticed the living room wall clock above the TV was missing. If I was in heaven, this heaven was not what I had imagined but this heaven was what I would have custom ordered. I sat down at the kitchen table and said "Mom, am I in heaven? Did I die on the earth and come to heaven?" Mom didn't say anything for awhile, just busying herself with her kitchen chores. I was amazed at how young she looked. Finally, mom said, "If you are not in heaven, where else would you want to be?" I thought about this for a long while. Not knowing what else to say, I said, "Yeah, I would like this place to be heaven. This place today is so perfect. Everything is perfect. I even feel perfect." Mom said, "The Lord knows what we need." She still didn't say whether I was in heaven or not but it didn't matter much. Everything was too perfect for me to even care. I asked mom a question about my wife and son. I asked her "If I have died, what about Deana and John." Mom said, "You never have to worry about them. God has them in the palm of His hand. He will never let them go. The Lord will shelter them forever."

Mom put two slices of pie in front of me, one slice was cream pie, and the other was black raspberry. She brought me a fork and a glass of milk. The first bite of cream pie literally melted in my mouth. So did all the bites of the rest of the two slices. Those pies were made in heaven by my mom. Wow!!!

After I finished the slices of pie, mom laughed and said, "You need to go to your room." I laughed and said, "What did I do this time? Eat too much pie?" She laughed and said, "No, just go look." So I got up from the table and walked through the dining room, past the fireplace in the living room, and down the hallway. I noticed in two of the bedrooms there were no beds, just other furniture like work tables and chairs. I turned to mom and said, "There are no beds in the bedrooms. Where do you sleep?" Mom said, "We don't sleep here. No one gets tired. No one gets weary. We never need rest." I was beginning to understand, but not fully. I walked to my bedroom and opened the door. The bedroom was packed, floor to ceiling, and wall to wall with all my things. My computers, my TV, things I collected over the years. Now I was really baffled. I asked mom, "How could all this stuff have gotten here if I am in heaven?" Mom said, "Would heaven be complete without your old train set, or your short wave radio, or your electronics kits, or the models you built, or you computers? All these things brought you joy. Would your heaven be complete without them?" I thought for a moment and said "No. Heaven would be kind of dull without them. God really did build a custom mansion for me didn't He?" Mom said "Yes, God built you a custom-designed mansion. Actually, He built you a custom world."

I turned to mom and said, "I want to stay here. If God will permit me, I want to stay here forever." Mom said, "Of course, whether you stay here or whether you have only been given a preview, is not up to me. You will be meeting Him according to His will. Walk up the hill across the road. That is all I can tell you."

Still baffled and still uncertain, I walked out the front door, crossed the road in front of the house, climbed a couple of fences, and started up the hill. I saw a man standing in the middle of the road near the top of the hill. The man was not Jesus. I was beginning to feel disappointment. I did not know who the man was. He was pleasant looking and called me by my first name. The man told me his name but I could not pronounce it now. There was a stone bench off to the side of the road. The man and I both sat down on the stone bench. From the stone bench I could look back at my house, the river, the green lawns, the trees, and the flowers blooming everywhere. I was speechless from the beauty before me. The man said, "You have done well in your life. However, now is not your time to live here. You have more work to do on the earth. People in your life need you now and into the future. The Lord knows your trials. He knows your pain and heartache but the Lord wants you on the earth for a while longer. I can give you a solid promise from the Lord. The Lord promises you that you will live here again, in this very place, in this very part of heaven for as long as you want. Because you have given the Lord much, the Lord will give you your heart's desire of living here again."

Suddenly, I was back in the hallway outside my office. I was crushed with disappointment and elated at the same time. In an instant the pain in my body hit me like a train had slammed into me. I staggered back into my office and sat down at my computer. What should I do next? What will happen next? I called my assistant and had her clear my calendar of all appointments. I told her I was taking some time off. Turning 68 in March, I thought maybe I need to stop some things and start new ones.

For as long as I live, no matter what conditions I must face in my earthly life, I shall never forget the gorgeous wonder of looking out upon my house, my river, my trees and flowers…that place in heaven God built for me…waiting for me to return

John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.4 You know the way to the place where I am going."5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (NIV)

This story is fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

This message was presented in January 2012 as the Virtual Church message in Shepherd's Care Ministries virtual church site at http://www.findthepower.com