Heaven Is Not About Us

by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2025

(May 7, 2025) — That’s right, heaven is not about you or me.

Heaven is God’s home.

His castle.

He makes the house rules.

You don’t like them? Don’t go.

But the truth is, you do want heaven.

You pray the Lord’s Prayer and plead, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

You dream of utopia.

You say, “In a perfect world…” and wish it were so, right here, right now.

Admit it, you like how heaven works.

There is justice, compassion, honesty, safety, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and love for one another.

Gone are arrogance, selfishness, greed, oppression, strife, dissension, conceit, deceit, backbiting, and all the evils we rail against in rallies and write laws to stamp out and teach our children to shun: “Don’t touch, don’t handle, don’t do.”

When it comes down to it, in the end, you want heaven.

You can have it, but only God’s way, which makes it not about you. Or me.

And there’s the rub—the first house rule: You must use the front door. No breaking in. No going around the back. No slinking in after hours.

And above all, no grandstanding about how grand you are. The door is too narrow for all of your baggage.

Let’s be clear: Jesus is The Door. He said as much.

I am the door. Enter by me and be saved.1

He said it is narrow.

Strive to enter through the narrow gate.2

He said there is no end-run, no alternative.

“No one comes to the Father except through Me.”3

And it’s entered only by daylight.

Night is coming when no one can work.4

I suspect this makes you grouse, but give it some thought, and you will come to understand God’s purpose.

Consider your ways, and judge whether God isn’t just for how He restricts access to His home.

You likely have checking and savings accounts. So do I, but there is so much more that I would like, and what you have would help me get it. Tell me how to contact you so I can get your PIN and username, and we’ll enjoy banking together.

If you are not laughing me to scorn, you’re aghast. Of course, you won’t give me the keys to your accounts. Preposterous! You don’t know me. Who am I to think your money is mine?

Will you deny God the security you require for yourself? The treasures of heaven are of far more worth than our possessions.

It is only reasonable to open the door to those you know and trust.

And so it is with God, which brings us back to the front door, the first house rule.

He meets you there and welcomes those He knows, but turns others away.

Read the rest here.