I have amazing conversations with my great-grandchildren. Well, with the three old enough to talk. But, it’s Naomi who often surprises me. Her concept of life is always fresh. Often astounding.
Whenever she looks at the photo of my husband on my dresser, she questions me about him, trying to grasp death in a manner fathomable for a kindergartener.
“Did Papa ever hold me?” “No,” I answer. “Jesus took him to heaven before you were born.”
Recently that familiar conversation took a different twist. She looked at me intensely, gauging when I might make a similar exit from her world. “I don’t want you to die,” she said. But then, she asked, “Aren’t you thirty-nine? Or sixty-nine?”
“No; I’m neither one,” I replied, realizing that—if thirty-nine is old, any actual number I gave her hardly mattered. What stopped my breath was her next comment.
“Well,” said Naomi. “I think … you’re about two blocks from heaven.”
I was lying across my bed but nearly fell onto the floor laughing. Two blocks? Is that like two years? Two months? Two decades? Could it be two minutes?
What exactly is a “block” to a six-year-old?
Reflecting on our conversation, I realize she had it right. In the gift of Christ’s resurrection, we are promised an inheritance in heaven. The exact time and circumstances under which we claim it are in His hands.
As we celebrate Resurrection Sunday on April 17, I rejoice in the fact that the Apostle Peter supported Naomi’s insight when he wrote:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.
—1 Peter 1:3-4
Take heart; those two blocks belong to you. They are the traveling distance of Grace. They remind us of the passion we must feel for the work Christ assigned us to complete.
You have only a moment. Only two blocks. Procrastination wastes your time. Two blocks to rejoice in the day when Christ conquered death. And to celebrate the assurance that the Holy Spirit guides each step.
Regina M. Prude is an author and inspirational speaker. E-mail: [email protected]. Facebook (www.facebook.com/reginaprude) Twitter (http://twitter.com/rprude.) Write: PO Box 58795, Nashville, TN 37205.
© Regina M. Prude 2022
