It happened again, and it was just as unexpected as the first time…
The first time someone asked me if I believed in ghosts I was in Fiji in the back of an SUV headed for the interior of the island to go boar hunting. I had just introduced myself to the 12 year old boy sitting in the middle seat of the car when he leaned over towards me and posed that unexpected question, watching me carefully for my reaction. When I told him “Yes, I believe this world is both physical and spiritual”, he turned, smiled darkly, and then replied, “You’re going to see them tonight.” I assure you, that is a night I will never forget.
So when it happened again a few days ago, I was little leery of what might come next. It was during my first English class here in Malaysia that my student suddenly interrupted our lesson and asked “do you believe in ghosts?” I gave him the same response. He looked at me and said, “I do too.” At this point, I started to fasten my seatbelt because did not know what was about to come next. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything too pressing. He told me about a book that he had been reading that had prompted him to think about these questions.
[sigh of relief]
So then we continued our lesson. This young man had just finished his first year at his university, so Tommy and I started asking him what his dream job would be. “A Zoo Keeper!!”, he replied excitedly. Then Tommy said, “Oh, so you must love animals. What is your favorite animal?” His response:
I want to go to heaven.
Tommy and I looked at each other extremely confused. Did he understand our question? Surely not. So we asked again. “Okay, but what is your favorite animal? You said you wanted to be a zookeeper.”
I want to go to heaven.
Complete, Utter, Shock. Before we could say anything else his mother pulled up in front of the english center and he began to pack his bag. Tommy and I kinda just looked at each other. The significant stare was enough to say, “did that really just happen?”
The following day our student returned to the center. Things started out casually, but I was excited to get back on the topic of heaven. Eventually we made it there. I asked him what he had heard about heaven. He told me that one of his friends at the university showed him the Jesus film. He was really excited about the movie and he desired to know more. I asked him if he knew what he needed to do to go to heaven. He said,
No. But I want to go there.
Heaven is more than happiness after you die. Heaven is the restoration of your relationship with your Creator. God is Love. Love is not simply his character or personality, it is his very nature. As humans, we were created in His image to be the object of that extravagant love. In the Garden of Eden, before sin entered the world, man walked side by side with God. However, when we sinned we separated ourselves from God. That was not his design for us, but we chose to part ways by following our own evil desires. Jesus came to this world to die in our place. He took our punishment and paid the debt of our sins once and for all. He did this because he is God and he couldn’t stand to be separated from us. When we accept Jesus as our savior we recognize that we deserved to die, but rejoice that he came to set us free from our shortcomings. When we accept Jesus as our savior we are saying “Yes, I accept the incredible blessing of a restored relationship with God.” It’s not just a question of what happens when we die. It’s an invitation to once again draw near to God today. We are forever forgiven, and we have that security now. There is no way that we could approach God on our own. We can’t do enough good things to stand before the Almighty God and expect to him to receive us as we are. It is only through Jesus’s payment of our sins that we can approach him. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we proclaim “I recognize your sacrifice for me, and through faith I accept your grace”, and we can confidently stand before our Creator unafraid.
God gave me the privilege to share the gospel with my student and pray with him as he accepted Jesus as his savior. His friend has a Mandarin Bible that he can share, and we’re taking steps to help him find a local church that can teach him all about God. Moments after he prayed, he shared with me that he felt incredible love. He was so overcome that he could no longer express his thoughts clearly in English. So he wrote down two simple sentences on a piece of paper for me to read:
Today, I feel a little love.
One day, I will feel only love.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
Revelation 21:3-5
