A Ten-Year-Old’s Heart for Heaven: Isaiah’s Adventure Part 5

Over the last 12 hours, the doctors will be performing a battery of tests to detect Isaiah’s brain activity. The test outcomes will determine the course moving forward. Of course, we know that it is God who determining his course. We are praying for wisdom for us and the doctors, accuracy in the tests, and responsiveness in Isaiah.

After we tucked the kids into bed tonight, Maya and I went into Isaiah’s room and crawled into his bed. He had the book that he’s been working his way through sitting next to his Avengers alarm clock. It’s the book, Heaven, by Randy Alcorn.

Isaiah asked if he could read it himself several weeks ago and has been working away at it every night. His bookmark was just beginning chapter 11. Some of the chapter titles that he has read include things like: “Can you know you’re going to Heaven?” “What is Life Like in the Present Heaven?” and “This World Is Not Our Home.”

The last chapter he read in it is called, “What Will It Mean for the Curse to be Lifted?” This is a passage from the last page of that chapter. He probably read it the night right before his accident, as he was going to sleep:

“How far does Christ’s redemptive work extend? Far as the curse is found…Redemption in Jesus Christ reaches just as far as the fall…Jesus…will transform our dying Earth into a vital New Earth, fresh and uncontaminated, no longer subject to death and destruction.
The Curse is real, but it is temporary. Jesus is the cure for the Curse. He came to set derailed human history back on its tracks. Earth won’t be put out of its misery; it will be infused with a greater life than it has ever known, at last becoming all that God meant for it to be.
We have never seen the earth as God made it. Our planet as we know it is a shadowy, halftone image of the original….If the present Earth, so diminished by the Curse, is at times so beautiful and wonderful; if our bodies, so diminished by the Curse, are at times overcome with a sense of the earth’s beauty and wonder; then how magnificent will the new earth be? And what will it be like to experience the New Earth in something else we’ve never known: perfect bodies?
…..Without Christ….mankind would be doomed. But Christ came, died, and rose from the grave. He brought deliverance, not destruction. Because of Christ, we are not doomed…Christ’s resurrection is the forerunner of our own.”

We had completely forgotten this was the book Isaiah was going through right now. We thought when he asked that it would be a little too heady for him, but he assured us enthusiastically that he was loving it every time we asked. Of course, God knew what He was doing.

Isaiah has professed faith in Christ and so he is twice our brother. He is also in the hands of our Great Father who is in Heaven. This morning, we read from John 11 with the kids, about two other sisters who were weeping for their brother. Jesus told them that this had happened so that His glory might be made manifest in him. He told them that He was the resurrection and that life, and all who believe in Him, though he dies, yet will he live. Jesus wept beside the tomb with them, but the story ends with Him crying: Lazarus! Come forth! And their brother came back from the grave.

We believe that Jesus is the Great Miracle Worker and the Great Physician. That He weeps and grieves for His flock and will never forsake us. We believe that He can bring Isaiah back to us, and that is our constant prayer.

But we also know that Lazarus’ resurrection pointed to the Great Resurrection. The Resurrection that Jesus brings forth in the hearts of all who trust in Him alone for salvation. We, who are dead in sin, cannot bring this work about in ourselves. Jesus comes to us while we are dead, while we are repulsive, while the odor of the grave is infiltrating every corrupted cell. And He weeps for us. And calls us by name. And commands us to Come Forth!

By His amazing grace, and His providential and sovereign plan before the foundations of the world, He chose Isaiah to call forth from the grave already. Isaiah is saved and therefore has only one ultimate destination. We want, oh so much, to have him here with us for a great time longer, but God’s timing is perfect, and He loves Isaiah with an everlasting love.

Soli Deo Gloria,