The Haven of Heaven

I pulled up to a house and a steep driveway. My Toyota Camry was unable to traverse the steep incline. I was forced to unload and carry my luggage up the steep drive…traipsing through deep snow and ruining my dress shoes. I had been traveling for 4 days and as Murphy would have it, the day I left, it snowed a foot. It never seems to amaze me. Every time that I have traveled over the past couple of months, the Lord opens the Heavens and dumps 6 to 12 inches of snow the morning I leave…stranding my wife and boys.

Needless to say, everyone was ready for dad to get home. Gabe and Luke were particularly excited to have me home and couldn’t wait to show me their pictures they had drawn for me while I was away.

As they handed them to me, I starred in awe at their masterpieces. The fact that my boys spend their art time drawing a picture of an Angel named “Exalter” at the gates of Heaven, is humbling. It makes you feel like you are doing something right as a parent. The second thing I noticed was the appropriate misspelling of the word “Heaven.” Gabe had titled his artwork “Haven,” and then came back and crammed an “e” in there.

Webster’s defines HAVEN as: 1: a place of safety or ASYLUM2: a place offering favorable opportunities or conditions

If you cross-reference the word Asylum you find that it means: a place of retreat and security.

Gabe, I couldn’t agree more with you. I live my life here on this Earth to one day enter a place of safety, a place offering favorable opportunities or conditions and place of retreat. Heaven…a place offering eternal security. Sign me up…I’m in.

I thank God for the plan. It would have been impossible for God to make it any easier or simpler. I am asked to trust Him with my life. Because I place my trust in Him, I am equipped with a Helper that navigates my steps to follow his instructions in a book that He wrote to me a long time ago…to treat others as Christ treated the Church, and to love my neighbor as myself. Because followers of Christ do this, the world is a better place and I am able to live life to the fullest. And, one day when my Heavenly Dad says it’s finally time to enter His gates, I will live forever, with no end, in complete happiness and security. Sounds like paradise…oh wait, it is paradise.

Good plan God.

Sometimes my vision gets cloudy. I forget the prize. I forget what awaits. I thank God for my insightful 7 year old boy who reminds me of the haven of Heaven.