Many more will be in

When I was a kid, I was taught that only our group was in.  Only our denomination was going to heaven.

Thank God, over the years I have rejected that teaching.

Who is in? Who gets to go to heaven? I have heard people say that the Jews are out. Yet Jesus refers to several of the Patriarchs as being in heaven. Mt. 8:11.

I have heard people say that this group is out because they don't believe the Bible correctly. That group is out because they did not get baptized correctly.

I have come to believe that God is probably much more gracious than we humans are. That however many people I think are getting in, there will probably be more. We will all likely be surprised by the presence in heaven of a certain person, and surely there will be those who are surprised to see us there as well.

The three kings from the East were not Jews or Christians, yet they play a pivotal role in the birth narrative.  Did God do that on purpose?

In Luke 13:29 Jesus says People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. This must have been a fantastically challenging statement to people who did not travel much. I have been North to Canada. I have been South to Mexico. I have been to Russia and Nicaragua. I have been exposed to various cultures and beliefs that are much different than ours. You don't have to believe it the way that I do. People who are not like us are going to be in. 

In Isaiah 2, the prophet says that in the last days, all nations will stream to the mountain of the Lord.  Not just the Methodists, not just the Christians, but all nations.  In his later days, Billy Graham spoke about the "wideness in God's mercy."  

The embrace of God is much wider than any of us ever thought.

I have become quite comfortable with telling people that I am not in charge of who gets in. Neither are they and neither are you. God decides who is going to get in and who is not. Let's let God be God and lets just enjoy the journey of being human along the road of this life.