“Can I take my suitcase to heaven when Jesus comes, Mother?” Trudie asked anxiously.
“Oh, Trudie!” big sister Louise who was six, answered her four-year-old sister in disgust. “Of course you can’t take a suitcase to heaven; can she, Mother?”
“But I want to take it!” Trudie was close to tears.
Mother looked lovingly at her two small girls in their pajamas sitting up in bed waiting for her answer. Their Bible story that night had been about heaven, and about the wonderful time when the Lord Jesus would come to take those who belonged to him to live with Him forever.
“When the Lord Jesus comes, Trudie, there is just one thing we can take with us,” answered Mother.
“What is it?” both girls asked together.
“Our hearts that have been washed clean in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus! The Lord Jesus knows that we won’t need any of the things that belong down in this old world. You wouldn’t want your suitcase there, dear. Everything there will be shining and wonderful, and our hearts will have everything they need to be perfectly happy!”
It was time to sleep, so the two little girls knelt to pray. Mother heard Trudie saying, “Dear Lord Jesus, when you come to take us to heaven, please, I would like to take my suitcase. Mother doesn’t want to take hers; Daddy doesn’t want to take his, and Louise doesn’t want to take hers—but I do want to take mine!”
Then Trudie prayed about other things, but before she finished her prayer she thought again of the coming of the Lord Jesus, and she said, “And when you come for us, dear Jesus, I guess you’ll just have to carry Louise and me, for we don’t know how to fly yet!”
Mother kissed the girls good night, and put out the light. Sitting in the living room she smiled as she thought of Trudie’s prayer. Then serious thoughts came. A suitcase to heaven! Were not many people clinging to things of this life of no more value in God’s sight than Trudie’s old suitcase? Were they not spending their lives for them as though they thought surely they would be able to take them to heaven with them to enjoy them for all eternity? Was she doing the same?
At any moment the glad shout might call the Christians away from this world. “Then whose would all these things be?” These “things” of earthly pleasure, comfort and enjoyment would all be left behind with Trudie’s suitcase.
As mother sat thinking a real desire began to grow in her heart that the Lord would teach her now to lay up more treasure in heaven where it would last for eternity. She could spend more time praying for many who did not know the Lord Jesus as she did. She could tell others of the love of the Lord Jesus who had died for their sins. She could teach her little girls, and many of the children in the neighborhood, the things from God’s Word that would help them to grow into true, happy Christians. These were things that would last!
Then Mother thought of how Trudie had said, “And when You come for us, dear Jesus, I guess You’ll just have to carry Louise and me, for we don’t know how to fly yet!”
“No, and I can’t fly either,” Mother thought. Nor could anyone else. If the Lord didn’t carry us patiently and lovingly all through life’s journey, and then at His coming lift us up with His arms of love into His presence not one would ever get there!
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