When we think of a gateway to Heaven, we instantly imagine a spectacularly grand gate … leading to a setting of indescribable beauty beyond.
However, you will notice that the gate pictured in today’s background photo is not spectacularly grand, nor does it lead to a setting of indescribable beauty beyond. Rather, the gate is completely fallen off the hinges and is in separate pieces off to the side.
This pretty much sums up how our lives look when we first come to Jesus. As sinful, broken people, living in a sinful, broken world, our lives wind up “fallen off the hinges” and “in pieces off to the side.”
But God loves us! Even in the mess that we are in. All God asks is that we simply come.
In John 4:1-42 we read of Jesus’s encounter with a woman from Samaria. This woman’s life was messy. She had had 5 husbands, and the man with whom she was currently living was not her husband. Yet, Jesus loved her, regardless of the mess. Jesus offered her eternal life … and the woman believed!
“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ They came out of the town and made their way toward him. … Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, ’He told me everything I ever did.’ … They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’” – John 4:28-30, 39, 42
When we come to Jesus, the Gateway to Heaven, it will look a lot like today’s background photo. We come to Jesus right where we are at … mess and all.
We will not be instantly swept through a spectacularly grand gate into a paradise of indescribable beauty. No. We are still living here in this broken world. We still have life’s journey which we must travel.
However, Jesus, the Gateway to Heaven, will take our hand and walk with us every step along the way … bringing Heaven into our journey … and ultimately leading us to Heaven’s paradise at the end of our road.
Jesus alone is the Gateway to Heaven!
Any other gate is the wrong gate.
