The story is told about a man who dies and go to the gates of Heaven. He is told that he can enter Heaven. The man wants to know what Hell is like before he enters Heaven. The guardian takes him to Hell where the man observes people seated at a dinner table fighting over food and how to get some for themselves. The people had no elbows so their arms couldn't bend to bring the food to their mouths. The man then asks what the difference is in Heaven. He's taken there where he finds a similar dining room where there are many people seated eating peacefully. They don't have any elbows either. What the man saw was the people feeding each other. So, while the people who go to Hell perish, those who go to Heaven thrive all because of a point of view. In either case the choice is to the individual. Who would choose which?
"Well, Hell doesn't even exist!" Really, if you don't believe in Hell in eternity just look around you as some of the hell on earth that exists right now. Chances are you and I are the ones who are not taking care of others as we have been gifted to do. Maybe the choices mankind has made actually has created hell here on earth. I don't like to think that maybe I've been guilty of that. Yet, that is exactly what I have done in any number of situations or times of my life. Thankfully, God has also worked through me to create some heaven on earth as well. Don't get me wrong. Mankind needs to be saved to enter into heaven. That goes for on earth as well. Perhaps the "feeding" we do is just what someone needs to seek and find the God who saves?
The story is told about a rich man and his headstrong son. The son was graduating from college and wanted a summer of carefree living. He told his father that he wanted a certain sports car for his "reward" for finishing college. His father was concerned and said so. Yet, the father prayed about this request. When the day finally came for the father to give his son the gift they sat down together and the father began to talk to the son. The son impatiently interrupted his father and told him to skip the lecture and give him the present. The father was a godly man and knew that his words would fall on deaf ears from this point forward. So the father gave the son a wrapped box. The son ripped open the box and found to his dismay a Bible. It was a beautiful old preserved Bible that had been passed down through the years from father to son. The son exploded at how worthless this gift was. He left the home and didn't return until his father died and the estate was to be settled. The son was talking with the lawyer who handed the son his inheritance. It was the Bible. The son started to become angry when the lawyer stopped him and told him to look inside of the Bible. There taped to the inside of the cover was a car key and instructions on where the car was parked. The son was gripped with guilt and remorse as he learned that day his father had given him exactly what he wanted. The gift hadn't been wrapped as the son expected. Not only did the son throw the father away but he also didn't find the gift.
The story is told that we can find ourselves in either of these stories. We can apply the right setting and details that make the stories ours. We can allow heaven or hell to encompass our lives as well as those lives in our sphere of influence. We can go into eternity having chosen Christ or not. Are we wanting to go down that road? Have you been living a life that has told others that you belong to Jesus? There are many instances over the years of my Christian life where others would have rightly told you that I wasn't acting, thinking or being what anyone would consider a Christian life. That's where the rest of the story comes into play. God offers us fresh, new, and wonderful grace through his son Jesus. We can begin life anew every day. Let's make sure that we take the time to feed someone else and to recognize the package for what it contains.
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