a thought about heaven.

I'm hit with the "no, duh" obvious things far too often.

I was thinking about heaven today. More specifically, heaven before Jesus died. It was around from the very beginning (think Genesis 1:1). In a parable, Jesus talks about Abraham being there and the rich man who was unkind to Lazarus saw him... I always wondered why Abraham was in heaven if Jesus hadn't died yet... maybe it was a different heaven that would change into the real thing once Jesus rose again.

And then I thought... that's dumb, because it didn't take Jesus dying for people to start going to heaven. The death and resurrection of Jesus was GOING to happen and It didn't usher in the era of heaven. People could go to heaven in the Old Testament and the New Testament before Jesus died because no person just randomly shows up in God's book. He already knows who's going to be there, even those that haven't been born yet. So because of what was yet to happen, because of what was going to happen (because God is God), people who lived and died before the time of and the death of Jesus could definitely go to heaven!

Perhaps it's just me writing the obvious again, but I thought that was pretty neat. I don't know why it didn't click in there before.