The Human Longing for Heaven

Earth is just a pale imitation of the wonders of God's presence

There’s a story about a little boy who was flying a kite. The wind was perfect that day and he had a lot of kite string, so he let his kite go higher and higher into the air. Eventually, he lost sight of the kite altogether.

An older man came along and saw the little boy just holding onto a string.

“What are you doing?” the man asked.

“I’m flying my kite,” the boy said.

“I don’t see a kite,” the man said. “How do you know it is there?”

The little boy squinted up at the sky and then looked at the man. “I know it’s there because I can feel its tug.”

None of us can see Heaven, but all of us can feel its tug. We’ve never been there, but the deepest part of our hearts wants to go there. Often, this desire goes back to the earliest days of our childhood—maybe starting with the first loss of someone we loved. When you know someone who is in Heaven, that destination becomes much more important. It becomes more real. You see life differently.