Almost Heaven

By Ken Laue

I was 50 years old when I went to Cameroon, Africa on a week-long mission trip with my wife, Bonnie and my 18-year-old daughter, Michelle. One by one, the young men came and begged: “Take me to America!” And of Michelle, they asked, “Will you marry me? Perhaps they just saw a beautiful girl, so starkly white in a country of black people. But more likely (based on the previous question) they saw a ticket to America, if they could just score the marriage. Clearly, these young men did not realize it wasn’t in my power to grant them passage to the U.S.A., and that Michelle was not romantically interested in them after a week’s time. Nor were they familiar with the John Denver lyrics, Almost Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River…

Hard to explain that the visa and immigration legalities were way beyond my job description, and that even if I did have the power to grant them access, there was the matter of the insurmountable expense of the plane ticket across the Atlantic. To them, America was Almost Heaven. What with the gangs and crime, racism, and other problems in our country, we may feel that America is a far cry from even an almost Heaven. But millions of foreigners down through the decades continue to believe it is just that – and by comparison, it most certainly is. If you compare America to third-world nations struggling with poverty or civil wars or brutal communist regimes where personal freedoms are restricted, it’s no wonder so many people risk it all to get into America, whether legally or illegally.

So many, in fact, that our federal, state, and local governments are often overwhelmed by the influx. That is why President Trump was elected, running on a platform to secure our borders: because seemingly anyone can just sneak on in, whether decent well-intentioned laborers looking for work or asylum from failed states, or evil smugglers, drug cartels, and just plain criminals. It reminds me of the parable Jesus told in Matthew chapter 22, of the uninvited guest who showed up at the King’s feast. After crashing the party, he goes a step further and refuses to wear the proper attire – a robe supplied by the King himself – and so he gets thrown out. The feast represents the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Heaven, and the robe represents a robe of righteousness, which is free, but which must be obtained from Jesus and Him alone, by asking Him to forgive your sins and to come live in your heart.

Now, if America is almost Heaven, then I’d say that going through the proper channels of legal immigration is the required robe, while illegal immigrants are like the improperly attired gate crasher who was thrown out. In this very imperfect analogy, ICE might be the servants who are summoned to cast the crasher out, and sanctuary cities or states may be those who work against the attendance requirements of the king. One further thought: As preachers often remind us, no one who doesn’t want to be in Heaven will be there – like atheists, determined backsliders, or other Christ rejecters. However, we find many hard-core liberals living in this country who hate America. They often cite national sins of the past, such as slavery, Jim Crow persecutions, or the displacement of Native Americans.

Certainly it is true that the nation should recognize and never repeat these sins of the past. But at the same time, we must not fail to recognize the good that has come out of America in spite of its past failures and growing pains. Yes, America has a track record of past deeds that is far from perfect, but we as a nation are learning from our mistakes. The Civil War was our nation’s repentance from the darkness of slavery, at tremendous cost – but it proved to be only the beginning of the move toward equality and justice. The work is not done yet, by any means. It is a work in progress, but it is progressing.

America has given multiplied billions of dollars of hard-earned taxpayers’ money to impoverished countries, victims of natural disasters, and many other righteous causes. Not to mention that in the Twentieth Century, America saved the world from brutal genocidal dictatorships at the cost of more than a million American dead and as many wounded. Of the liberals who hate our country so much, and blame the U.S. for all the ills in the world, I would ask: Why, then, do so many millions risk it all to make it to this country, whether by legal, illegal, or any means at all? They would gladly trade places with you. Not just to obtain your average American salary of say, $45,000 per year, but to get any job at all – as a maid, a janitor, a field hand, a meatpacking plant laborer. And when they get such a job, they feel like they’ve made it to their almost Heaven – at least it is, compared to what they left back home.

As a Christian writer, I would be remiss to end this article without directing your attention once more to the True Heaven. You see, the main issue is not who gets to live in America. The real issue – against the backdrop of all eternity and not just our short lives on this earth – is who gets to go to Heaven. Jesus is the only way in. He has already extended you an invitation, and He is ready to provide your robe of righteousness. In John 14:6 he says “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father except by Me.” Not on your own terms. Not by hopping some kind of spiritual border fence or swimming the spiritual Rio Grande or eluding the spiritual ICE. Only by faith in Him, asking Him to forgive your sins and come into your heart – confessing Him and believing in Him (Romans 10:9). Then you are welcomed into Heaven without any hassle – and you get the “red carpet treatment” at that!