Dinner With A Dinosaur
Our four-year-old has been talking a lot about heaven. She really wants to see her Dah-dee. She understands that she cannot see him right now but that doesn't make her miss him any less. “I don't like having dreams,” she said to me one night. “Why not?” I asked. “Because they are scary.” “What's scary about them?” “Well,” she said, “I had a dream about a dinosaur, we were eating dinner.” “Was the dinosaur eating you for dinner?” “No,” she chuckled. “Then what was so scary about it you like dinosaurs, remember? In fact, didn't you name Dah-dee’s dinosaur that he has in heaven?” She is convinced that once you get to heaven everyone gets to pick out their own dinosaur. She named Tensley's dinosaur after his favorite drink. “Yes,” she said smiling, “I named Dah-dee’s dinosaur Ginger!”
“Tell me more about this dream,” I said. “Ok, well me and the dinosaur were sitting down eating dinner.” “What were you eating?” I asked, interrupting. “Meatballs!” she exclaimed. “Wow, this is all starting to make sense now,” I said. “What?” she said, “Tell me.” “Well, your not-so-scary dream makes a lot more sense than I originally thought it did. You know how you have been missing Dah-dee and you want to go to heaven to visit?” “Yeah,” she answered. “Well, I have a feeling that God is up to something.” “What do you mean?” “God knows that it is not possible for you to see Dah-dee right now but He wants you to be comforted, so He gave you that dream.” “Comfortle? (That's how she says comfortable) How am I comfortle dreaming of a dinosaur?” “Because you were having dinner with a dinosaur, not just any dinosaur but Ginger, Dah-dee’s dinosaur. And do you know what one of Dah-dee’s favorite foods was?” “What?” “Meatballs! You were eating Dah-dee’s favorite food with Dah-dee’s favorite dinosaur. You ever think this was God’s way of telling you that Dah-dee loves you and is thinking of you by sharing some of his favorite things with you in a dream?” “Wow,” she said at the thought.” “Hey, you never did tell me why that dream was so scary,” I said. “It was scary because I didn't want it to end.”
“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (Jn. 14:2-4). There was never a doubt in the mind of Jesus about heaven. You could tell by the way He spoke about it that He had the utmost confidence about life beyond this earth. There was a plan to go and to prepare a place for the people He loves, you and me. No one took Jesus to the cross, He chose to go, it was His plan, and so too is His plan to have an eternity with us, a reunion in the Father’s House.
I often think of eternity with Christ and I picture multitudes of people, praising Him. To the left and to the right, endless seas of people glorifying the Holy of Holies. But heaven isn’t for everybody, maybe just the people looking forward to endlessly praising the King of Kings. Believe it or not, the idea of constantly worshipping God does not appeal to everybody. Those people would rather wage their bets in Hell. Recently a pastor did an interview where he said that he had died and gone to Hell. In Hell, he said that Rihanna’s hit, “Umbrella” and Bobby McFerrin’s song “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” were playing. Someone said to me, “That doesn’t make sense, why would they play those songs?” I said, “Because of the irony. You don’t need an umbrella in hell because there is no water (Lk. 16:24). And, well, ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy,’ that goes without saying.” But people make a conscious decision to go to Hell by rejecting the one way to Heaven, Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:5-6). Jesus is preparing a place for us in eternity but He is also preparing us for that place. Make sure that, with Jesus, is where you want to be.
The disciples could no longer see Jesus, touch Him, talk to Him, or walk with Him but Jesus never wanted them to think of Him as forever gone. He was physically gone, to another place, so that when they met Him, through their own physical deaths or when He gathers the Church to Himself in the Rapture, they could have comfort knowing there was a place prepared for them, for all believers.
What is it like to be in heaven? What is it like to be with Jesus? Is it like being in a dream you never want to wake from, being part of a narrative that you never want to end? I could venture to say it is like nothing you have ever experienced, like eating dinner with a dinosaur.
