I attended the funeral at Temple Baptist Church in Wilmington recently for a dedicated Christian lady who had been a member of our church choir for more than 50 years. Shirley’s last few days on earth were spent in the local Hospice unit. She was, of course, not able to communicate with her family during those last two or three days as she finished her journey on the way to “that city, eternal, in the heavens, not made by hands.”
During the visitation hour prior to the worship service celebrating Shirley’s life, one of her sons said to me, “I was standing by mother’s’ bedside when she died. Suddenly, she said, ‘I see Jessie Parkerson. She is wearing a white robe. And she is sitting by a fountain.’ Shirley breathed only two or three more times after that – and she was gone.”
What a tremendous emotional moment that was for me! Jessie and I labored together serving churches as pastor and wife for nearly 65 years. God called her home on April 5, 2016. The fact that she was the first person at heaven’s gate to welcome Shirley to her eternal home is a powerful confirmation of the truth found in John 14:2-3 (NIV): “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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you may also be where I am.”
People have often asked me, “What will heaven be like? The Bible tells us that it will be a place of beauty, peace, constant health and happiness, filled with people from all the earthly ages, who have one thing in common: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world on Calvary’s cross. No one has gone or will ever go to heaven because he or she is a church member, or because of anything he or she does. There is only one way to go to heaven: you must go to Calvary, confess your sins, lay them down, accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord, turn to the right and keep straight ahead. If you have already done this, at the time of God’s choosing He will call your name, and you will head in the direction of your heavenly home.
I can think of the dedicated Christians I have known across the years who will be in heaven one day when I arrive – my precious wife Jessie whom I have already mentioned, my parents, other members of my family, and countless others whom I have known across my 90 years. I want to serve the Lord on planet earth as long as I live, but I look forward to the reunion that I will have with them when Christ calls my name. What a great reunion that will be!
Keep your Bible open and you will never find the door of heaven shut. A poem written by an anonymous author that I have often used in graveside funeral services to celebrate the life of individuals superbly emphasizes this fact:
“Think of stepping on shore
and finding it heaven!
Of taking hold of a hand
and finding it God’s!
Of breathing new air
and finding it celestial air!
Of feeling invigorated
and finding it immortality!
Of passing from storm and stress
to a perfect calm
Of waking and finding it home!”
The Paper Pulpit 
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