Heaven on my mind

It might be time to buy a lottery ticket. Danny says he dreamt we couldn't spend our money anymore -- if something cost $1, he'd hand a single to the cashier and by the time it went from his hand to hers, it was a $10 bill and she would give him change. It happened every time.

Wow. What a concept. Imagine what the weekly shopping trip to the local discount store would garner! We usually spend about $80 a week to keep the pantry well-stocked and our tummies well-rounded. According to the guidelines of the dream, we'd come out $720 ahead. Every week! And that's just at the grocery store. Maybe I'd better start working on my letter of resignation. Surely someone else needs this job more than I do, at least for as long as the dream lasts.

Other than the occasional nightmare, I usually enjoy, even appreciate, my dreams. Oftentimes I've worked out some interpersonal issue in a dream and discovered the next morning that the root of bitterness I'd been secretly nurturing had been poisoned at the source.

At other times, a dream has served to clarify an issue or introduce a concept my active conscience couldn't grasp while busy classifying the events of a day as they transpired. That was certainly the case when I dreamt that Danny had a girlfriend. When I went to confront her I discovered that she was my very own infant daughter, Lisa. That dream nipped the jealousy issue that has plagued mothers and their daughters since time out of mind right in the bud.

In the song "Deep Enough to Dream" Chris Rice enters into a daydream of heaven, "deep enough to dream in brilliant colors I have never seen." As his daydream continues he croons, "deep enough to reach out and touch the face of the One who made me."

That song has been running through my mind since Saturday night when I learned that when Colton Burpo visited heaven, he saw "colors that we don't have here" and sat in Jesus' lap while watching his daddy pray desperately for the life of his son.

Colton's story has been told and retold on the front page of this newspaper and on most of the major television networks and cable outlets, so I won't retell it here.

However, when Colton said he sat in Jesus' lap, my spirit soared. Oh, I don't have the eyewitness testimony his dad, Todd, shares in the best-selling book "Heaven is for Real," but I do have a testimony. So do many others.

No, I haven't gone to heaven yet. But when I do, you can be sure it won't be just for a visit. I'm staying put. When I get home at night now, I tend to stay put, once I get all the way home to heaven, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be there to stay.

I have, however, felt the touch of Jesus' hand in this reality and I will never forget it. It happened at our kitchen table, early one morning, while a cup of coffee sat steaming in front of me and tears as plentiful as a spring rain fell from my eyes. Until he touched me. The peace that Colton speaks of in his testimony was mine that day and returns with each remembering. I do my best to remember it often. In this reality, peace is fleeting.

Danny and I have discussed heaven many times. We know it's real. It's as real as the life we live each day in the here and now -- perhaps more so. I think in an effort to keep my feet on the ground, Danny sometimes has to remind me that we really don't know precisely what heaven is going to be like, but he allows that, "Jesus says we're going to like it."

There is an old adage, "She's so heavenly minded she's of no earthly good."

It's usually quoted with disdain, but I'm thinking it may not be a bad thing after all, at least not that first clause.

If believers were more heavenly minded then perhaps we would be less fearful, daring to share home, hearth, wealth, faith, life and breath.

If we were more heavenly minded, we would also be more aware of hell and much more apt to warn people of its reality - to rescue the perishing, to speak the truth, in love, at every opportunity.

If we were more heavenly minded, if we believe the angels will carry us from this reality to the very throne room of God, as Colton said, knowing that the "first person you'll see is Jesus," then the "peace that transcends all understanding" (Philippians 4:7) would truly be ours and our lives would be a daily reflection of that peace.

Maybe, if we were more heavenly minded, we could live what we say we believe, as Todd Burpo said Saturday night. We would live forgiving because we have been forgiven; we would live turning the other cheek, knowing and trusting God with the hurt; we would live generously, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, slaking the thirst of those who crave fresh waters.

Maybe, just maybe, if we were more heavenly minded, we could do this old earth a world of good.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27 (NIV)

I don't have all the answers, but I know the One who does. Let's walk together for awhile and discover Him; together.

Dawn