Get to know Jesus

Jesus would like that. He told people to be ready in a different way: ready to go to heaven whenever it was time for them to be with God. In this week's Gospel (Luke 13:22-30), He talks about that.

Jesus taught, "Try to get into heaven, because it's hard to get through its narrow gate. After it's too late to try, many people will say, `Lord, let us in.' But God will answer, `I don't know you.' `Yes, you do! You ate with us and taught us,' the people will cry. But God will tell them, `Go away. I don't know you.'"

God is like that, too. In the Gospel story, Jesus warned people not to wait until the last minute to get close to God. If you treat other people terribly your whole life, Jesus said, don't expect to go to heaven. No one's perfect, but He expected us to try!

If you don't get your school things at sales, your family has to pay more money -- which probably means you won't get what you want. Jesus said heaven is like that: If you act mean your whole life and never say you're sorry, you might not get what you want from God -- a place in heaven!

Everybody knows there's big sales on school stuff before school starts. Just like that, everybody knows you should try to pray and be good, so you can be close to God. When we go to heaven, Jesus wanted God to know us all well -- as well as we know about buying school stuff!

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK: Jesus, help me stay close to you! Amen.