...AND THEN WHAT?

…AND THEN WHAT?

As the carry-out clerk at our local grocery store walked to my car with me, we talked about what was going on in his life in high school. “So,” I asked, “you graduate this Spring?” Affirmative. “Then college?”

He told me he would be majoring in engineering. “Then what? Working with some big firm in a big city?” Right. “Then what?” He said he would probably get married and have some kids. “Then what?” He continued loading my groceries into the trunk of my car.

“Guess I’ll get a house and eventually retire.” He had big plans for retirement. Travel all around the world, coming back now and then to see his kids and maybe grandkids, but mostly travel and lots of fishing.

“Then what?” By now the trunk lid was closed and he had turned the buggy back in the direction of the store. There was a long pause and he scratched his head. He guessed he would one day die. “Then what?”

“I dunno.”

As I write this, my friend, Pastor Gary Folds of Belle Grade, Florida is on his way to preach a funeral. The man who died was someone he had led to Christ thirty-six years ago. What a joy to know that Vernon, his friend, has triumphantly arrived in heaven because Gary had taken the time to tell him about Jesus Christ.

I’m glad my ‘then what’ is heaven. Heaven is a real place for real people who have been saved by a real Savior, who died a real death for them on the cross and who really rose from the grave. For real!

Recently I watched an interview on FOX NEWS featuring Colton and Todd Burpo. Colton, when he was four years old, was being operated on for a ruptured appendix. His dad, Todd Burpo, pastor of Crossroads Weslyan Church in Imperial, Nebraska, was agonizing in prayer in the hospital chapel.



Colton had an amazing experience during this time. He said he saw his dad in the chapel praying and also his mother on the telephone. Fast forward. Colton arrived in heaven where he saw amazing things. Besides seeing Biblical characters and family members that he had never met, Colton saw Jesus. “His smile lit up all of heaven,” said Colton in the interview. Needless to say I went straight to my computer and ordered his book, “Heaven is For Real.”

Years ago I was privileged to hear Betty Malz speak at my brother’s church in California. Betty had also suffered a ruptured appendix and was pronounced clinically dead for 28 minutes. During her death experience Betty went to heaven and experienced many of the same things that Colton shared with the TV audience.



Betty’s testimony really gripped my heart that Sunday evening because we had just been to my mother’s funeral that afternoon and our emotions were a jumbled mix of joy and sadness.

Mom had suffered a heart attack as she was pulling into her bank’s parking lot. A passerby saw her hit a parked car and ran to assist her. She was slumped over the steering wheel. Although her door was locked, the passenger door was not.

Opening the door he watched my mother sit up and with tears streaming down her face, she raised her arms to heaven. Then she was gone. The man told my brother and me that there was a fragrance in that car that he would never forget as long as he lived. Without a doubt, we believe she saw Jesus. He is real!



Betty Malz wrote a book about her experience entitled, “My Glimpse of Eternity”. I first read Betty’s book back in the sixties and was so excited about heaven that I purchased 15 copies and passed them out to my neighbors. Now, here it was, the day of mom’s funeral and I was able to hear her in person.

As Betty shared her experiences I could see Mom walking up to the gates of that city, accompanied by one of God’s holy angels. I’m so glad her ‘then what’ was heaven. How about you friend? Are you looking forward to your eternity? Will you be bowing before Jesus as your Savior or as your Judge? “Whosoever will call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)