We will call the boy in our picture Charlie, and say that he works for the farmer who lives in the big house. Charlie is a good boy, so he is happy. See what round cheeks he has. The sun is hot, and the sheep are lying down, so Charlie is lying down, too, under the shade of this great tree.
As Charlie lies there gazing upward into the blue sky, he feels the drawing and longing that we all feel when we gaze up so. Perhaps he has heard,
“There’s a home for little children
“Above the bright blue sky,”
and wonders how he can get there. Could you tell him? He needs two things; the ability to get there, and the right to enter. Now, no one can have a right to enter unless God gives it. Has He given you the right to enter? Do sons have the right to enter their fathers’ houses? If anyone receives Jesus, He gives him power (or right) to become a son of God. Can you find where in the Bible it says this? It is in John. Have you received Jesus?
Once there was a Frenchman in a hospital, sick. He wanted to receive Jesus into his heart; so he sat up in bed, and bared his bosom, and said, “Come, Jesus, into my heart.” One receives Him in one way and one in another. Do you want to receive Him? Well, He knows your heart. He will cleanse it, and then He will come in, and He will give you the right to enter heaven, because He takes you into partnership with Himself, and you are made a joint-heir with Christ. (Rom. 8.)
But, now you have the right to enter, how are you to get there? I asked some school children in Ireland this question, walking along the road, and had a variety of answers: one said “fly there,” but none could tell me how. Perhaps you say, “When we die the angels will carry us there.” That is true: they carry what is really us there, but we are not complete without our bodies, and you know they go back to dust. How, then, are we to get there in spirit, soul and body, perfect, all glorified? Must we die to get there? No; for “we shall not all sleep.” How is it to be done? Listen. “The dead in Christ shall rise first.” The living “shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” Then, together, they shall be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and He will take them in, for they never part from Him again. Have you the right to enter? Will you be caught up?
ML 07/05/1903