From Floors of Clay to Streets of Gold

One of our Togolese friends just lost their 10 year old "adopted" son.  The Lord has chosen not to give them children of their own, but they adopted their nephew and his sister who lost both their parents.  My heart hurts for them for many reasons that in this lifetime I will never understand why.   I may never understand why God acts in the way He does or allows the things He does, but I trust that He is a good God.

Beni, this little boy's adopted father is confident that the little boy was saved.  Apparently, because of his testimony even in his suffering, his extended Muslim family was aware that he was a Christian.  So much so that when he died the family (Beni and Enyonam where not there when he passed away) called the closest Catholic Church to bury him because they knew he was not Muslim.  The Catholic church was the closest thing they knew of to this little boy's Jesus.

As Sharon (one of the other missionaries here) and I were praying for this sweet family, my eyes filled with tears.  Yes, they were tears of sadness for this family's loss, but it was as if I had a glimpse of Heaven.  The Holy Spirit so impressed upon my heart the hope of Heaven we have as Christians.

But as we prayed for this family I was struck by something that I am not sure I can explain.  I had this image in my mind of this little African boy waking up in Heaven.  Now for all of us Heaven will be more grand than anything we have ever seen, but I couldn't help but see his sweet brown face with  big brown eyes as he saw HEAVEN!  A little boy who had known loss greater than most will know in a lifetime is now with his Heavenly Father.  A little boy who knew what is was to suffer and be hungry will never hurt or be hungry again.  A little boy who had probably never seen much clean water now drinks of the Living Waters!  A little boy whose home was mud bricks now has his promised mansion. A little boy who grew up on clay floors now can run on streets of gold!  What an awesome moment it must have been in Heaven as this little boy opened his big brown eyes and saw his new home and saw his Jesus!