“I was sitting by God the Holy Spirit because I was praying for you. You
needed the Holy Spirit, so I prayed for you.”
This took my breath away. Colton saying that he was praying for me in
heaven reminded me of the letter to the Hebrews, where the writer says:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of
witnesses... let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”^6
“What does God look like?” I said. “God the Holy Spirit?”
Colton furrowed his brow. “Hmm, that’s kind of a hard one... he’s kind
of blue.”
Just as I was trying to picture that, Colton shifted course again. “You
know, that’s where I met Pop.”
“You met Pop sitting by the Holy Spirit?”
Colton nodded vigorously, smiling at what seemed a pleasant memory.
“Yep. Pop came up to me and said, ‘Is Todd your dad?’ And I said yes.
And Pop said, ‘He’s my grandson.’”
How many times, when I presided over a funeral, had mourners
delivered the usual well-meaning platitudes: “Well, she’s in a better place,”
or “We know he’s looking down on us, smiling,” or “You’ll see him again.”
Of course, I believed those things in theory, but to be honest, I couldn’t
picture them. Now, with what Colton had said about Pop and about his
sister, I began to think about heaven in a different way. Not just a place with
jeweled gates, shining rivers, and streets of gold, but a realm of joy and
fellowship, both for those who are with us in eternity and those still on earth,
whose arrival we eagerly anticipated. A place where I would one day walk
and talk with my grandfather who had meant so much to me, and with the
daughter I had never met.
With all my heart, I wanted to believe. At that moment, the details of our
conversations began to pile up in my mind like a stack of Polaroids—
pictures of heaven that seemed uncannily accurate from the descriptions
we all have available to us in the Bible—all of us who can read, that is. But
these details were obscure to most adults, much less a kid of Colton’s
young age. The nature of the Trinity, the role of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sitting
at the right hand of God.
I believed. But how could I be sure?