Micah in Heaven

When Micah died, I had difficulty with how Micah would be welcomed into Heaven. I’ve always pictured the entrance into Heaven as a joyous event. Joyous, that is, for the deceased believer and Heaven’s other members . But Micah was of the age where he particularly appreciated the familiar faces of mom, dad and grandpas and grandmas. Who did he know in Heaven that would welcome him? Would he be startled by all of the unfamiliar faces? Micah had lived on earth for such a short period of time that there was no one he knew on earth that had preceded him into Heaven.

But, surely, since Jesus is mighty to save Micah, could not also He see to it that loving and beautiful faces also welcome him into eternity? I imagine that there are many smiling saints who enjoy the opportunity to welcome a little child who Jesus saved before adulthood.

About a month after Micah died, my cousin Chris created the illustration I have included above. The illustration depicts Micah being lead by a little bird into a boat, where Micah then travels across a large body of water. The scene on the bottom depicts Micah being welcome by my grandparents, Delbert and Irene Wessman, who preceded us into glory.

Micah’s “ship” illustration reminds of this illustration about Heaven, which is attributed to Henry Van Dyke, an American preacher from the 1800’s:

“I’m standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She’s an object of beauty and strength and I stand watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and the sky come down to mingle with each other. And then I hear someone at my side saying, “There, she’s gone.”
Gone where? Gone from my sight, this is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side. And just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There, she is gone” there are other eyes watching her coming, and there are other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!” Cited by Randy Alcorn, In Light of Eternity, p. 152.

As agonizing as it is to be separated from Micah this Christmas season, how joyous it must have been for Heaven’s citizens, last summer, to welcome Micah to glory. The most enjoyable Christmas celebrations here on earth have nothing on the joy experienced in Heaven. Someday, I will similarly enter the Kingdom, by the blood of Jesus, to the shouts of joy of many dearly loved family members, including my son, Micah Robert Wessman.