Chapter
31

Even though Elna and I longed for many routine things to be the same, they simply were not. On our first day back at church in the children’s ministry, things were definitely different. Elna had served in kindergarten previously. The kids in the class were five years old. It was way too soon to be around other people’s children with us unable to touch our Jackson. I had moved up to the second-grade class to follow along with Allison who I normally held each class. Allison was recovering from her own ICU stay for her sepsis treatment and was not in Sunday School that day I came back. Being there was extremely hard. It came to a head at the end of the class. I remember being in the room with the head teacher of the class. Her son who was in about the fourth grade was also there. He had come to join his mom after his class was over. The head teacher asked me if I was doing ok. I said something along the lines that I was trying to keep my focus on the fact that Jackson was in Heaven and without a care in the world. Her son heard this and said, “My dad said that Jackson isn’t in Heaven.”

 

I said, “What?”

 

He said, “Yeah. My dad said that it was sad that Jackson wouldn’t be in heaven because he hadn’t walked the aisle of the church and gotten baptized before he died?”

 

Again, I said, “What????”

 

She told her son to hush, to which he replied, “But remember? Dad told us....”

 

She shut the conversation down, as I stood there with my mouth open and staring.

 

This wasn’t an outlier of a family. The dad was a deacon of the church. The mom and I had taught together in the kid’s ministry for quite some time. This family had been the ones that were sent out to the site of the accident and had removed the parts of the Suburban that had remained stuck in the trees. They were a caring and loving family. However, they were simply wrong. They were absolutely, positively wrong!

 

We all come from various places in life. God directs our paths. We are commanded to never judge another person. The ultimate display of judgment is for me to decide if another person is in Heaven. That’s not my place to decide. That’s God’s, and I’m certainly not God.

 

Jesus said in

John 14:6:

 

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

 

 

Jackson was a friend of Jesus.’ Jackson knew Him more clearly than just about anyone that I’ve ever met. Jackson’s faith in Jesus was simple. Jackson knew and trusted Jesus in a way unobstructed by the stresses and chaos of adult life.

 

Jesus said in Matthew 19:14:

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

​

Salvation from our sins and an eternal life with God comes from Jesus plus nothing. It’s not Jesus plus a seminary degree. It’s not Jesus plus a particular way of being baptized by water. It’s not Jesus plus a walk up to the front of a church to shake a pastor’s hand. It’s simply Jesus plus nothing.

 

As Jesus hung on the cross during His crucifixion, a thief that was also being crucified that day cried out to Him. The thief who was rightfully being killed for the sins he had committed turned to Jesus who had never committed a single sin and asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus enters His Kingdom. Jesus told him that on that very day he would be with Jesus in Paradise.

 

The thief had nothing but Jesus. Jesus plus nothing was the answer, and it still is.

 

Luke 23:39-43 New International Version

 

39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”