But Dad, I'm not a boy or How Heaven is like going to the bathroom.

Two weeks ago we were at church and I needed to take Lucy to the bathroom. So being a boy, I took her to the boy's washroom. Which is when she reminded me that she was not a boy. It seems like all our children have taken umbrage with going to the wrong bathroom at one time or another. Lucy seemed genuinely concerned on this occasion that she was doing something wrong by being a girl in a boys room.

I told her that since I was a boy, she was allowed to be there, since she was with me. I went on to say that she could only go in the boys room when I brought here in there. And at that moment, maybe because we were in a church bathroom, the salvivic implications of our experience hit me.

Here is how getting in to heaven is a lot like going to the Bathroom:

Heaven is a place where sinful man is not welcome on their own. Man's sin has hampered our ability to be welcome in the home of the holy creator of the Universe. Man's attempts to get to God on our own (religion) all fail miserably.

Man can only get into Heaven as a result of God's doing and not their own. When the idea struck me walking out of the bathroom that I can only get into Heaven with God this verse from Ephesians came to my mind:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result if works, so that no one may boast.

Now, no analogies are perfect, especially those relating spiritual things; particularly those pertaining to washrooms. In order for Lucy to go into the boys washroom, I have to bring her in every time. This analogy would be similar to the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. What Jesus did on the cross for us, was to make heaven accessible to all who would believe.

So that is how going to the bathroom reminded me of the wonder of God's redemptive love.

Next Time: Hero

P.S. Salvivic means of or relating to salvation. I paid a lot of money for 1 year of seminary, might as well use a word or two from time to time.