How Do You Find Heaven?
Carol McClain
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3
In my darkest hours, when my emotional health was at the lowest, I understood I needed Jesus. When we are “poor in spirit,” the first Beatitude says, we can find heaven. (Read last week’s post. Click here).
However, once we have recognized we all sin and cannot redeem ourselves, we still must recognize our poverty of spirit. When we sin, when we’re depressed, when our Christian witness is less than inspiring, we need to repent and turn back to Christ.
There are probably a gazillion illustrations from my life, but I’m boring.
King David however …
He impregnated Bathsheba, his close friend’s wife, while her husband, Uriah, fought for David’s kingdom. To save himself and Bathsheba, David arranged to have Uriah killed in battle. Then he married Bathsheba.
Problem solved?
You know the answer. The prophet Nathan castigated the king, and David’s baby died. The sin done in secret was not hidden.
Here, poor in spirit and mourning his sin, David wrote one of his most poignant psalms–Psalm 51. The entire poem is one of repentance and restoration. The key points, this week, are verses 1-4:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight …
Always defined as a man after God’s own heart, David lived a life forgiven and assured of God’s covenant.
Maybe you haven’t committed adultery or murdered someone or robbed a bank or … (our sins are many). Maybe your sins are small (by comparison). Yet,compared to God, even the smallest wrongdoing is grievous and soul staining. When we confess, when we admit the poverty of our lives, God will create in us clean spirits, and ours will be the kingdom of heaven.
Prodigal Lives–This novel illustrates how the poor in spirit find the kingdom of heaven. It’s a breathtaking look at forgiveness.
Life keeps piling problems on Meredith Jaynes. She loses her second foster child—one she was scheduled to adopt. Then Parker Snow refuses to marry her. With only her goats and artisan soap to support her, life will get no better.
If she is honest, though, she still has Crystal. Her funny, happy, loveable toddler makes the sun shine and reminds her of the never-failing love of God.
Pearl Solomon loves her life with her grandfather Guy, but every one of her triumphs is overshadowed by her sisters’ lives. With Mama Meredith, they live a life she envies. Because of her jealousy, she refuses to contact them.
Years later, life for both families twist down paths they do not wish to travel. Pearl knows she’s lost what was most precious in life but has no means of fixing things. Left to her own devices, she spirals out of control.
Meredith finds it harder to mask the despair infertility has brought to her life.
Both families believe they must reconcile themselves to their fates as reality shatters their dreams unless they dig deep for the promise of love.
Author Carol McClain
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