“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven.”<\/p>\n
This is on my brother’s tombstone.\u00a0 He was a total invalid for nearly four decades, after polio with very high fever for a week when he was six months old.<\/p>\n
My parents took care of him in our home all those years.\u00a0 (no institution could take him, even if that were a consideration)\u00a0 Someone always stayed home to be with him.<\/p>\n
This has a major impact on my life, even to this day.\u00a0 But the above Bible verse affects me the most.<\/p>\n
Several months ago at church in the park, I saw a new understanding of this verse.\u00a0 I had always focused on the “much tribulation,” because of what my folks had to go through.\u00a0 Then I realized what the verse is really all about—<\/p>\n
“We must<\/span> enter the kingdom of heaven.”\u00a0 That’s it.\u00a0 That is what matters, for all of us.<\/p>\n Heaven is where we belong.\u00a0 Here on earth we’re just passing through.\u00a0 We will have trouble here.\u00a0 This world is rough because we don’t belong here permanently.<\/p>\n “This world is not my home;<\/p>\n .\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I’m just a passin’ through.<\/p>\n My treasures are laid up<\/p>\n .\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Somewhere beyond the blue.<\/p>\n The angels beckon me<\/p>\n .\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From heaven’s open door;<\/p>\n And I won’t feel at home<\/p>\n .\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In this world anymore.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven.” This is on my brother’s tombstone.\u00a0 He was a total invalid for nearly four decades, after polio with very high fever for a week when he was six months old. My parents took care of him in our home all those years.\u00a0 (no institution […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith_based","category-family","category-inspire_lifter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}