Every Sunday the Simmons would attend church. Church was always quite curious to Joshua, who was five years of age, and one of four siblings that made up the Simmons family.
Jack and Sandra, the parents of Joshua, always taught each one of their children the facts of life and how to live by the commandments of God.
Jack was a Deacon in the church and his wife, Sandra, was an Usher; and of course the other three siblings, Jack Jr., who is ten years of age and Becky, who is nine years old, and Matilda, who is seven year old, were all in the Children’s Choir; including Joshua.
Joshua was always picturing what heaven was like, according to his parents, and the sermons that Pastor Nichols would preach at the church. Joshua would always ask questions about heaven and what he thought heaven was about.
He was always taught that in heaven, you would have no more fears, no pain and that you would be glorifying God each and every day. The thought of these awesome things would always be in Joshua’s mind.
Joshua and his siblings would always try to live by the commandments of God so that they would one day, perhaps when the time came, be a part of this heaven that was preached to them and was taught to them by their parents, the pastor and the elders of the church.
The description of heaven was so great that the Simmons kids never wanted to make mistakes that would some how keep them from going to heaven. So on a daily basis, whether at school , at church or at play, they would try to be the peace makers among their friends and family.
Joshua would even take in stray animals until they were able to find permanent homes for them, thinking that this would be a good additional gesture to get him into heaven.
So one Sunday morning, Pastor Nichols’ sermon was on how to make it to heaven. The sermon topic was so intense and rewarding that Joshua could not take his eyes off of Pastor Nichols, because he really wanted to know what it takes to make it to heaven.
Joshua was sitting close to the first row of the church, so after Pastor Nichols’ sermon, the pastor told the congregation that he wanted to see the hands raised of all who wanted to go to heaven. The pastor noticed that Joshua didn’t raise his hands and the pastor asked him why. Joshua replied, “I thought that you were rounding up a bunch of people to go right now, cause I am not ready to go today, I am still a boy”.
The congregation all had a good laugh. But this puts the thought in our minds that “everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die”. (Smile).
