Our picture of "Heaven" is wrong because we're looking in the wrong place. Rather than gazing up in the clouds trying to picture what heaven will be like, look down at your feet. Take your shoes off and dig your toes into the damp soil. Reach down and tip the little pill bug over on its back. Watch its squiggly legs kick in the air. Then, turn it over again and let it scurry away. Nearby, see the earthworm wriggling deeper into the freshly turned earth. Look closer and examine the tiny grains of dirt, each a different shape and color, yet combining to form the lush hue of fertile soil. It even smells brown. Turn over the small rocks and explore the exquisite glories that hide in even the most innocuous crevices of creation. I can't tell you what the new earth will be like. The Bible gives us very little detail. But I can say that this one's pretty amazing. And, whatever God has in mind for our future, it will not be any less than this.

There are a couple things at play here, some involving the paper, some involving your skin.

My children are my neighbors and thus deserve grace and conversation about truth and belief. In their early years this is a more one-sided conversation but, it must become a two-way flow of ideas in time. I do not rule their hearts, so to attempt to wield authority over them is a vain and angst inducing effort. I shepherd them, but I do not convert them. I teach and influence them, but I do not make them. And so I should emphasize evangelizing them not indoctrinating them.

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