Can We Be Certain?

 

 

Where are our loved ones now?

Do we know for sure?

Are they in heaven as some believe,

Or somewhere outside its door?

 

And if they are in heaven

Why are we reluctant to join them?

The effort we put in to stay alive

Does indicate a problem.

 

I know there is an appointed time

That we must leave this place

But except for the old and indigent

Re eagerness, there is not a trace.

 

 Christians generally want to live;

They do not want to die,

The sadness we see at a funeral

Does not that reality imply.

 

Funerals should be like weddings

A time of rejoicing and mirth,

If heaven is where we are going

We should rejoice to leave this earth.

 

When a death prognosis is given

It should be like winning the lotto:

“Hello my friends and loved ones

It’s off to heaven I go.”

 

Instead, there is wistful thinking

And a longing to remain

Even though there is the consolation

That we will be out of our pain.

 

If a poll was duly conducted

To ascertain most Christians’ desire

Whether to die or to go on living,

Very few would opt to expire.

 

Like I said, the old and the indigent

For whom life holds no hope,

They would opt to die

As well as those who cannot cope.

 

 

 

It seems to me we are not sure

Where we go when we die,

For, given the way we respond to dying,

Certainty is not implied.

 

However, I must still ask the question

And I desire to hear your reply

Whether you know for certain

If it’s to heaven we go when we die.

 

Give me Bible chapter and verse

For I truly want to know,

But I am only prepared to accept

What the Bible actually shows.

 

Stewart Russell © June 2020