“Drive Carefully, there is no Heaven”
A red coupe from the 90s sat in the parking lot at our local grocery store. And when I say “90’s” I mean not just the year of the car but the theme: it had a Sailor Moon sticker on it. More importantly though, my eyes were drawn to the bumper sticker next to the super hero, as though she was declaring it. “Drive carefully, there is no heaven.” The driver who enjoyed an anime about super hero teenagers enough to stick one on her car, was at the same time ready to claim with all certainty that there’s no heaven. Is the sticker for laughs? Maybe it’s really a concern for this fleeting life. Sadly, the Highway patrol reported 1,156 deaths over the past year in the state of Ohio alone. Death is real. Sailor Moon isn’t. Heaven isn’t. So says the red coupe from the 90s.
In a sense, we should drive like there is no heaven, right? This life is precious, but it’s fragile. In another sense, the Church are those who know that though we’ve never seen Heaven, much less been there, they know the one who rules both earth and heaven. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes
1 Corinthians 15:19-20
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…
He’s been raised from the dead. He rules over Earth and Heaven.That means volumes for the every day life of his followers. It means we have a hope beyond this life. That whatever happens here, though significant, is not life-defining! Our relationship to Christ is life-defining because He is the only life-giver! So drive carefully. Live wisely. But don’t live as those who have no hope.
Holy Week is coming up. Maybe now’s a great time to prepare our hearts to remember together that Christ has risen from the grave. That we don’t need to fear the dangers of this life! For, as Paul wrote to Titus
Titus 2:11-14
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, [12] training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, [13] waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, [14] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
