so, just who does get to go to heaven?

When Renee emailed me in the middle of the night, I knew it was bad news.  I just didn't know who or what - and I was afraid she was going to say something about her kids.  I was Renee's nanny for about ten years, and they are another surrogate family of mine.  

But there isn't much relief in finding that someone else you knew and loved died.

It had just happened and I was sitting in my chair - up because of the kids being sick.  And after hearing the news I prayed for her soul.  I imagined her soul going up to God, being judged, and learning if her name was written in the Book of Life - and it wasn't a good feeling. 

What if it's not?  What if Sheila's eternal fate is hell?  

Sheila was Jewish.  She believed in God, she wasn't overly religious, but she was a good person.  Not that being a good person gets you into heaven, for if that were the case, she'd have  more chance than me, but there is John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

No one gets to the Father except through me.  I suppose I've always taken this verse to reflect what separates Christianity from Jews and Muslims - Jesus as the only way to heaven.  There are a lot of similarities - but this is the crucial difference.  Sin separated us from God, and Jesus brought us back together by taking our sins, dying for our sins - and believing this and excepting this act of redemption is the way back.

But this is my belief.  This is how I was raised.  This is the truth that was read and taught around me in my family and my culture.  Sheila's culture was not my culture.  Living within the Jewish community was another culture, with another set of beliefs and truths.  Who am I to say my truths were "right" and your truths were "wrong"?  How dare I try to pierce everything she knows with everything I know, as if I were right - and everyone around her was wrong?

It is the same living here in Turkey.  My cousin in his 50s died last year.  Most are Muslims - not necessarily devout or religious - but this is their culture, their history, their truths.  He surely wasn't actively pursuing God.  So what about the people that aren't so great and aren't so bad - they are just trying to get by in this life.  Maybe they are aware that their life is missing something, but can't put a finger on it...or even find the motivation to look for it.  Life is//was hard - and God was a distant part of their thoughts - acknowledged but not pursued.

There is no way of knowing.  But I also know, because I don't know all these things - the very simple basic and common starting point for all of us is a relationship with God.  And this is not supposed to be motivated by fear of dying, judgment day, heaven or hell.