I was just a little boy, but I noticed something confusing at church. We sang hymns about being eager to meet Jesus in heaven and I heard pastors talking about how much we yearned for the day we went to heaven. But at the same time, nobody seemed eager to die.
It was the first theological mystery of my life. Or maybe it was just sociology. Either way, I was too young to understand those words.
We prayed for sick people to get well. We prayed for long lives for ourselves. We mourned those who died. And in my little brain, that confused me.
If going to heaven was so great, why weren’t all these people eager to die?