Where’s Your Passport?

What Happens on the Airplane – Stays on the Airplane

I have been to Europe many times – mostly as a teacher leading students and adults on educational tours.  As a history teacher, nerd, travel junkie, and yes…a glutton for punishment, this is just my kind of thing!

On my fourth trip, I was co-leading a group with a dear friend of mine who taught math at the same high school where I taught history.  Sylvie also happens to be French, and since we were going to be spending 11 days in France, I figured it would be a “piece of cake” so to speak (pun intended)!  This was not my first trip to France, but I was really looking forward to sharing the experience with her, it being her home country.

There are plenty of preparations that go along with embarking on a trip like this.  High school students come with their own set of issues that one must be adequately equipped to deal with.  This was never a point that bothered me.  I’m not afraid of much of anything…except sharks.  And so, like times before, I’d had all the necessary group meetings, done all the reassuring of parents, harassed everyone to get passports, and so on, well in advance of departure.  The “What’s not funny to do or say in an airport or while on tour because it will get you sent home at your parents’ additional expense” speech had been given many times and understood by all.

As the plane touched down in Paris, the group came alive with excitement and anticipation – although a bit weary from the 9 hour flight.  Everyone collected their on-board baggage and filed off the plane finding a place nearby to wait for the entire party to regroup.  A few seemed to be taking a while to emerge from the plane, so seeing that there was only one way to go and nobody could get lost, I went ahead with most of them to immigrations.  We stopped before going through the passport checkpoint to wait for the stragglers.

I knew something was wrong after about ten minutes there, and I still hadn’t seen Sylvie.  One of the stragglers who caught up with us informed me that a student named Hannah couldn’t find her passport.  Sylvie was trying to help her. 

How do you lose your passport ON your flight to a foreign country?  Who knows?  This was not a good thing, and I knew that.

The entire rest of the plane had gone through immigrations and we were the only people left in that part of the processing center except the immigrations officers themselves who stared suspiciously at us.  Trying to divert the group’s attention from the tense circumstances was no easy task, but I did what I could while we waited in No Man’s Land…not in France and not in America.

45 minutes later, Sylvie and Hannah walked down the long hall to join us.  No passport.  However, I did have a color copy of all passports, and I handed it to Sylvie so she could try and explain the situation to the officers and plead “asylum” until we could get Hannah to the US Embassy and replace her passport.

Approaching the Border

You see…you can’t legally get in a country without the proper documentation.  All countries have “walls” around them.  When you show up at the gate, you must have the proper ID to get in.  I’m not taking sides in any political debate from current events, but those events did allow me to use them as a lens to see something about God that I felt inspired to share.  Please allow me that.

Even Heaven has walls around it. John describes some of them in Revelation 21:19-20:

The foundations of the city wall were adorned with every kind of jewel: the first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.

If you have never read John’s description of the Holy City, you really should.  It’s mind boggling.  While scholars argue over what it all means, one thing is certain.  John was metaphorically describing the Bride of Christ – the church.  Look at the previous scriptures, Revelation 21:9-12:

 Then one of the seven angels, who had held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” He then carried me away in the Spirit, to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, arrayed with God’s glory. Her radiance was like a precious jewel, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. The city had a massive high wall, with twelve gates.

Why describe the church in such a way?  John was inspired by God, so I can’t answer that for you.  But, the church is described as a bride many times in scripture, and here that bride is described as the most beautiful city you can imagine.  The people who will live in that city (Christians) are protected by the most extravagant and powerful walls ever conceived.  They are about 216 feet tall!  The foundations of the city cannot erode.  They are permanent and extraordinarily beautiful.

This bride (the church) now coming to meet her bride-groom, has come to fulfillment.  It is complete with all its members in attendance.  Her righteousness shines forth like the most precious jewels and metals on earth, and her steadfastness in the faith is like unto the most powerful structures to ever exist.  No flaws exist in her.  The only light source is the Holy radiance of God, and she is the temple – for within her God dwells.

Knocking on Heaven’s Door

To be granted admission into this city, you must have the proper documentation.  You must be a citizen – a member of God’s family.

God is a “globalist” (to use a modern term) in that He created the heavens and the earth and all things that exist in it, AND that He desperately desires that all people become members of His family so they may eternally dwell with Him in Glory. 

But Heaven does not have open borders.  You won’t be able to just show up on the outskirts and demand to be let in.  There’ll be no caravans of non-citizens storming the walls of Heaven.  In fact, when the time comes, if you aren’t a blood-of-Jesus-card-carrying citizen, you’re not even going to get within the realm of Heaven.  Angel guards aren’t going to shoot tear gas at you, arrest you for illegally crossing, or send you back home on the next 9 hour flight. 

There will be no one from whom to beg asylum.  Your fate will already have been sealed…by YOU.  YOU choose where you are going to spend eternity by rejecting or surrendering to the Holy Spirit.  He comes to us all.  YOU decide whether it’s Heaven or Hell, and there’s no changing your mind once you take your last breath on this earth.  Only one choice will adequately prepare you.

He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life, (Titus 3:6-7).

But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God, (John 1:12-13).

For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Philippians 3:18-20). 

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the only immigration processing center there is.  He is the only way to Heaven.  There is no other way.

Meanwhile, Back in Paris…

If Sylvie (armed with the copy of Hannah’s passport and documentation to prove she was part of an educational tour) wasn’t able to persuade the immigration officer to allow Hannah to enter France, they would have put her on the first flight back to America.  However, Sylvie prevailed, and Hannah finally rejoined the group.

Just one more big problem to deal with…Hannah was in France without a passport.  While she could run around France all she wanted…she couldn’t get out!  But that’s another story.

Dear friends, I beg you to secure your place in eternity in Heaven.  A passport issued to you by Jesus Christ can’t be lost.  Get your citizenship in order before it is everlastingly too late.  Repent of your sinful state and accept Jesus as your Savior.  I want you to know the anticipation and excitement that awaits when you take that final journey with the assurance that you are a citizen of Heaven.

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May God bless you!

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash