Heaven according to Julia.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is the people I get to meet along the way. I am not a huge fan of air travel (the taking off, being in the air, and landing part get me), but plane conversation makes up for the majority of my airbound phobias.

Most of my travel over the past year has been on Southwest, and as all of you frequent flyers know, this lovely airline offers open seating. Open seating offers many perks. It offers the opportunity for those traveling in groups to find seats together and the chance to snag that coveted window seat.

Open seating also leaves much to be questioned. Most of my travel over the past year has been alone, and I usually forget to check in early enough online. By the time I get on the plane, I am left with a choice of countless middle seats on the plane and get to scan my options of pairs of people to be sandwiched between for the duration of the trip.

My luck has varied in airplane seating, with the best involving a grandmother sharing her ginger snaps  and the worst involving a sniffling middle aged man and me holding my breath half of the flight to avoid contracting the flu.

This time, I walked onto the plane and took the first open seat I saw. Three rows from the front. Between and older lady and a ten year old girl. Quick and easy exit after landing. Prime real-estate in the air travel world.

I quickly found out the lady to my right wanted her privacy and kept her nose buried in her Better Homes and Garden Magazine. To my left, however, was Julia.

A few minutes into the flight, I learned that Julia was ten years old and traveling back home alone after visiting her dad and her step-mom, and step siblings for a month in Dallas. Julia and I quickly bonded over her love for Lizzie McGuire and the pink flower stickers on her portable cd player. I knew I was in when she introduced me to her oversized stuffed penguin who she affectionately calls "Mr. Popper's Penguins" (yes, that is his whole name).

Throughout the flight, Julia told me all about her dogs, showed me each of her 15 scars, and told me her 18 favorite colors (some of which I had never heard of).

About halfway through the flight, I looked over and Julia was staring out the window. She tapped on my arm, and told me to look out the window at the clouds. The clouds were beautiful, but I was more awestruck by the conversation that followed with this bright-eyed ten year old.

As Bill Cosby says, kids say the darndest things. But really, I think they say some of the most profound, too.

Julia looked straight at me and said, "How far do you think you have to go up above the clouds to get to heaven?"

I paused to think about my answer and not knowing exactly what to say, I told her I wasn't sure and then asked her what she thought heaven would be like.

She smiled a big smile looking out the window and said, "I think its going to be really big, really beautiful, and all golden. Everyone there will be SO happy because there will be no darkness at all. If anyone is unhappy, God will take them with him so they can learn to be like an angel."

Julia then asked me if her stuffed penguin would get to go to heaven with her. I told her I didn't know, but she assured me she was going to ask God and Jesus to let Mr. Popper's Penguins in because it would make her happy.

Julia got me thinking. What will heaven really be like? When I looked it up, there were too many verses to post, but so many that mirrored what my new friend Julia said.

• Revelation 21: 18  ^"The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass"
• Revelation 21:^{21 "}The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass."
• Revelation 21: 11  ^"It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal."
• Revelation 21: 4 "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
• Revelation 7:17 "For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

I asked Julia where she learned about heaven. Judging by some of the things she told me, I wasn't sure she had been brought up in church. She looked out the window at the clouds and told me that she just knew. 


I think heaven will be all the things Julia said and more. Looking around at God's creation here on earth takes my breath away. I can't imagine the magnitude of beauty and glory that will surround us one day in heaven. I'm sure its one of those "you have to be there to get it" kind of things. The thing is though, we don't have to get it now. Like little Julia said, we can just know.

One day, we will get to stand in the glory of the Lord in heaven. And I can only hope little Julia will be standing right there beside me. (maybe a certain stuffed penguin too).