From Devastation to Heaven

On Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 a monstrous tornado ripped through Joplin, MO leaving many dead and horrible destruction in its wake. That day began like any other day for Natalia Puebla, a 17 year old college student from Ozark Christian College. She did what she did every Sunday. She got up and went to church.

Doug Welch is a New Testament professor at Ozark Christian College. He had received the students final papers for his class a week earlier. They still sat on his desk ungraded the Sunday that the tornado hit Joplin. Most of the destruction in Joplin was on the south side of town. The campus of Ozark is located on the north side, so it was relatively unscathed. After the tornado, Doug had made it back to his office a few days later. There was the stack of ungraded papers on his desk. On top of that stack was Natalia Puebla’s paper on the “Hope of Heaven.” Natalia was killed the day the tornado hit Joplin. Doug said, “Her paper deserved an ‘A’ but Natalia knows the hope of heaven far better now.”

Everything can change in a moment. In the blink of an eye, your normal can be forever changed. Are you ready for that? Do you live with the realization that you have no solid guarantees of happiness and a pain-free life?

That is why the Scriptures tell us to set our minds on things “above.” (Colossians 3:1-2) Natalia is most certainly in heaven with her Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8 says, “…and prefer to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” (NASB) Paul was not expressing a death wish, but he was saying that this earthly existence is not the end of life at all for the Christian. Death immediately ushers the believer into a fuller, higher realm of a more abundant life.

A Christian at death is to be “with Christ.” (Philippians 1:23) When a believer dies he or she immediately enters heaven. Psalm 16:10-11 shows that when the psalmist died he anticipated being in the presence of God. Psalm 23:6 expresses the same idea that at life’s end, he would dwell in the house of the Lord forever (which means he would be in heaven with God).

Luke 16:19-31 gives us the description of “Abraham’s bosom” which some think describes a holding tank for the righteous. John 13:23 uses a parallel expression. This is in the context of the last supper. That expression comes out of eating at banquets and dinners. Lazarus was at the banquet table in a celebration of joy, next to Abraham, the father of the faithful. Which means Lazarus was given the seat of honor.

Some believe in places like purgatory or something similar. But I believe that the clear message of Scripture is that the hope of heaven is the heartbeat of the believer’s life. We look forward to this realm of inexpressible glory (Revelation 4-5). If you read Ezekiel 1:4-28, the prophet tried to describe something which neither he nor us can fully understand this side of heaven. But Natalia Puebla does. She knows it far better than a write up for a newsletter or a paper she turned in for her professor. She is in heaven.