Heaven’s Surprise- Be Careful How You Judge
The slew of recent deaths in the news has many people considering just what will happen to us when we die. As a Christian, I believe in what the Bible teaches about heaven and hell . . . eternal life with God forever or infinite separation from Him. There are many different opinions on the “afterlife,” and this post isn’t meant to go into those. I did, however, come across a funny Christian poem called “Heaven’s Surprise” the other morning while listening to a Joel Osteen podcast that I wanted to share with you.
Heaven’s Surprise
© 2004, J Taylor Ludwig
I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all, nor the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven who made me sputter and gasp–
The thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics and the trash.
There stood the kid from seventh grade who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice.
Herb, who I always thought was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine, looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, ‘What’s the deal? I would love to hear your take.
How’d all these sinners get up here? God must’ve made a mistake.
‘And why’s everyone so quiet, so somber – give me a clue.’
‘Child,’ He said, ‘they’re all in shock. They never thought they’d be seeing you!’
Hilarious, right?! Heaven’s Surprise puts into perspective how quickly we often judge others. I’ve been guilty of it myself. But have you noticed, I am not God? I don’t know who’s going to heaven and who isn’t, because I can’t see someone’s heart. All I can see is their lifestyle. Life is a journey and we are all in process. As long as we keep moving forward, we will make it to our destination. Plus, I’ve got enough areas in my own life that I need to work on. I don’t have time to try to police the lifestyles of others. Let’s read that again . . .
This isn’t a free for all now. I do believe if someone professes to be a Christian, he/she should walk worthy of his/her calling, carrying themselves like someone who’s life has been changed. We all need to possess more of the fruit of the Spirit (patience, love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control). But they’re called the fruit of the Spirit for a reason. We need the Holy Spirit’s power to change. We aren’t good on our own.
So today, let this funny Christian poem be a lesson to us all . . . I believe we will be surprised when we get to heaven. Let not the others be surprised at seeing you!
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Loved the poem . And I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m not a judger myself. Let God be the judge of all of us.
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Great poem that speaks volumes. The author is J. Taylor Ludwig.
Thanks so much for the author’s name Gloria. I couldn’t find it anywhere. Where did you find that?
I read it awhile back & wanted to share it, but it didn’t have the authors name so I did several Google searches until I found it. Two of the sites that had the author were these.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~regen/poem38.htm
http://www.theseedsower.org/2013/11/02/folks-in-heaven-by-j-taylor-ludwig/
Thank you!
this poem brought tears to my eyes as I am guilty of judging others too quickly….thank you for sharing…Marie
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I love this poem. It reminds me that I’m not better than anyone and I can only guess what others think about me.
I enjoyed reading Heaven’s Surprise, it was such a good laugh. I would love to share it with the members of my church. It’s good to know that through all the chaos in this world we.as christians can still laugh.