I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp —
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.
Bob, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well
I nudged Jesus, “What’s the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How’d all these sinners get up here?
God must’ve made a mistake.
“And why is everyone so quiet,
So somber — tell me Lord dear.”
“Hush, child,” He said, “they’re all in a shock.
No one thought they’d be seeing you here!!”
Judge not!!!
Remember…Just going to a place of worship doesn’t make you religious or saintly any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.
Every saint has a past…
Every sinner has a future!
We may not be privy to a person’s entire list of karma-s he / she may have performed in his / her lifetime. We may have seen a person performing negative karma-s in the early part of his life, but turning a new leaf, he may have started performing overwhelmingly good karma-s in later life, which we may not be aware of. Therefore, we have a dacoit Ratnakar, who looted and killed people, becoming Valmiki Rishi and composing Ramayana; an Angulimal, who killed 999 people, also becoming a Buddha; an Augustine, who was a gambler, drunkard and a womanizer, becoming St. Augustine; a Saul, who persecuted Christians in the early days of Christianity, becoming St. Paul.
There is no such thing as eternal condemnation. Everyone has plenty of opportunities to change and evolve to higher levels on the spiritual path.
Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil — it has no point!
2 Comments
What was the Jesus’ take on those sinners being in Heaven and also on their shock at the writer’s presence there?The lack of explanation makes the whole story rather weak.
It was assumed that “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future” was adequate enough explanation. Read the updated version of the article on the website.