My 4 Year Old, “You don’t fly to heaven, you walk.”

As we were sitting down at dinner tonight, we were explaining to our 4 year old daughter that everyone has a mommy and a daddy. She replied that her Daddy Jim doesn’t have a daddy. You see, my dad’s dad,  my grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer shortly before Mia was born and was headed into hospice as we were bringing Mia home from the hospital. Their lives overlapped for exactly two weeks. Mia just understands that he is missing from the table at our family gatherings. We explained that granddad is in heaven.

To which my daughter boldly replied,

“You don’t fly to heaven,  you walk.”

I was immediately taken aback by the depth of such a statement. You see,  sometimes the Lord speaks truth to me even through my 4 year old daughter.

Salvation isn’t about buying a ticket to one day fly up to heaven. Salvation is about walking it out in a redeemed,  repentant life seeking to honor the Lord and bring glory to His name.

And this doesn’t happen immediately and perfectly. It takes focus and effort and dedication and faith. It comes with trials and tests and discipline and correction and suffering.

It is a daily walk with the Lord, not just a “someday I’ll be reunited”.

Get to walking,  I tell myself.

Get to walking.

You see,  I know that my grandfather did his walking. He is a Godly man,  a loving and caring servant to others. He is the type of man served as a light to others and not a stumbling block. I know that he wants me to walk.

And many might be confused why I say is and not was. Doesn’t the Bible make it clear that Christ is Lord of the living,  not of the dead?

http://bible.com/116/mat.22.29-33.nlt
Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.  For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven. “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said,  ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.” When the crowds heard him, they were astounded at his teaching.

When I walk, I live. And walking is laying down my life as a sacrifice to Christ so that I might die and He might live in me. So I walk so that He might live in me and through me.

I tell myself,  keep walking.

Keep walking.