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“What's it like, Papa?”
My wife Judy and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary soon. Lately, I've been doing a lot of remembering. In 50 years of marriage lots of great things happen. We have been blessed by wonderful children, son and daughters-in-law and grandchildren. I've enjoyed a gratifying career as a minister. We have seen a lot of the world and a lot of pretty things together. 'Course there have been some times of heartache too. Our parents have died. Our oldest child, Janice, and an infant granddaughter, Jessica, have died. These kinds of things rip your heart out. But we are people of religious faith and that rescues us from despair. You who have been reading this column through the years know that I have chronicled these things here. Taken in full, I realize this column has evolved as a kind of memoir.
Now I'm doing a lot of counting my family blessings. In the middle of our middle-age years we were surprised to learn we were expecting another child. 17 years after the last one! After we regained consciousness, we were thrilled with the prospect! Susannah is 22 years old now. Graduated a year ago from the university. Spent last year working for VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) which is sort of like a domestic version of the Peace Corps. Now she's about to start graduate school at the theological seminary at Emory University in Atlanta. Naturally, Mom and Dad are shamelessly proud of her. And I have been pondering the development of her spirituality from her childhood.
On October 14, 1992 my mother died. On the same day a year later, my wife's mother died. It was an odd coincidence. Shortly after this, I was driving her to school one morning when she asked me, “Papa, do we believe in Hell? What is Hell like?” The questions caught me by surprise. But I was becoming accustomed to challenging questions from this little second grader. So I replied, “Honey, we don't know much about such things but some think Hell is where people who never loved God in this life--who never did a loving thing in this world--who never wanted to be near God in this life--go when they die to be with God forever. Wouldn't that be awful for that person?” She paused and asked, “Well, what is Heaven like?” I replied, “Some people believe that Heaven is where people who loved God in this life and wanted to be close to God, when they die, go to be with God forever. Wouldn't that be a wonderful life?”
To all of this she listened thoughtfully. (I still marvel at the privilege I had in such discussions with one so young and wise.) Then as I drove into the school driveway to drop her off, she said pertly as she opened the door to run off to class, “Papa, if a person really wanted to go to Hell, do you know how they'd do it?” I said, “No, how?” She said, “In a helicopter! Bye!”
I loved it! In a really good life, we need to develop some serenity about these things. We people of faith call it “blessed assurance.” We people of faith are able to look into the face of death itself and laugh it down. Life eventually arrives at the point of justice. And, we pray, mercy. What we have at the end is confidence in the character of God. We count on doing our lives well. And we count on God to get being God right. It's all about faith isn't it?
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