A Head Start In Heaven
- Now Think On This
by Steve Martin
"…but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. “Matt. 20:14 NASU
As was my usual custom, when I cleared the parking deck ramp, after leaving the uptown Charlotte, North Carolina office, I turned on the radio news. Seemed to be the same usual as usual. Before much too long I turned it off to have some “quiet time” while travelling southbound down the busy late afternoon NC I77 traffic toward home.
Thankfully I began humming in my head a song by Joshua Aaron, a Messianic Jew, singing about his bride and his promise to her, for a long time. Forever in fact. The song, My Beloved (Wedding Waltz) kept going over and over in my head. I was singing along, “I am no longer mine, I am yours forever. I give it all to you, my beloved.”
As you may know yourself, your mind often goes onto another subject. Most of the time they don’t seemed to be related, but as I traced back my thoughts later, they were. It was the Holy Spirit giving me a little revelation blessing of His Word. Follow the thread as it unwinds.
A close friend’s father had passed on to eternity two weeks earlier, and I began thinking about her loss. With my own dad having crossed over to his eternal reward in heaven over 15 years ago, it occurred to me that my dad had already a head start in heaven. He was already enjoying eternity that I know will someday be mine too. Only because Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.
Then somehow (Holy Spirit in action) I got to thinking about the parable Yeshua (Jesus) shared with His disciples about the workers, or laborers as He called them, in the Gospel of Matthew. Here is the story, which you probably know well.
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.' When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.'
"But he answered and said to one of them, ' Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' So the last shall be first, and the first last." Matthew 20:8-16 NASU
Now in times past, when trying to understand this Scripture, I couldn’t justify in my mind how the owner could be so unjust. Or even generous, as it says he actually was. After all, if I worked a full day on my job, beginning at 7:00 am, and another got hired and started at 3 pm, and then both of us got off at 4 pm, I would expect I’d get paid for eight hours, and he for only one hour. But if we both got paid for eight hours…
Catch my figuring at what seems unfair?
So back to the “head start in heaven” thought. Still driving down the road at the 65 mph going rate, it seemed the Holy Spirit wanted to enlighten me on that Scripture, to further my understanding. He started to say that those who have gone on ahead of us to their eternal reward, that being heaven and His presence, are enjoying their time even now. Though some have been there for centuries, once you and I who know the Lord get there, it will be as if we had been there just as long as they have too. There won’t be any “unfairness”, for His reward (pay) at the “end of the day” would be the same for each of us. (Now I know there are different crowns passed out to each for their labors on earth, but that is for another message.)
The head start in heaven, because of eternity’s timelessness, makes it seem as if it is all the same time for all. I know, my head spins too just trying to imagine that. Heaven and eternity are bigger than we can comprehend at this point. It is because His thoughts and plans are so much greater than ours.
It amazes me how the Holy Spirit speaks to us as we give Him moments to do so. In just a short amount of time, whether it is during a drive down the interstate after a busy work day, or starting the morning off in a Bible reading and prayer time, little things like that revelation above encourage us. And yes, I sure am looking forward to heaven.
And I know He is looking forward to us being with Him there too!
Now think on this,
Steve Martin
Founder
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Now Think On This #178 “A Head Start In Heaven” by Steve Martin
Date: In the year of our Lord 2015 (09.08.15) Tuesday at 6:00 pm in Charlotte, NC
All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This
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