How Jesus Makes the Difference

Thomas, a disciple of Jesus, once asked Him, “How can we know the way?”* (John 14:5) Jesus had been talking about heaven and the mansions prepared for us there. Heaven is a place we all want to go to, isn’t it? We imagine it being full of sunshine and flowers and angels playing harps, but we don’t really know what it is like. We do know it is a good and happy place to be. And we all want to be happy, don’t we? But how can we go to heaven?

Listen to what Jesus said to Thomas and what He says to us, too: “I am the way.”* (John 14:6) How can Jesus be the way? He is not a road to walk on or a book to read, but He is our Savior and Example. An example is something to copy. Can we copy Jesus? We can copy Him and live like He did when He makes our heart clean. When we belong to Jesus we want to follow and obey Him. And when we follow and obey, He will lead us on the way to Heaven.

Jesus also said that He was “the truth, and the life: no man [that means boys and girls, too] cometh unto the Father, but by me.”* (John 14:6) If Jesus is the Truth, we can believe and trust Him. He won’t tell us any lies or lead us to the wrong place, will He? When we are His, then we can pray to God and He will hear us. God listens to Jesus because He is God’s beloved Son. In that way, Jesus is like our door to God and Heaven. God becomes our Father and heaven becomes our home. What a wonderful thing!

When we are saved, Jesus becomes our life. His life is from heaven and has all those wonderful things: patience, gentleness, love, and joy. We have heaven in our heart when we walk with Jesus and obey Him. Just like Rosie, He will help us to live right even when things are hard. He brings the sunshine and love of heaven to us, and when things go wrong, we can always pray to our heavenly Father for help. So when we live for Jesus, He is our way to heaven—and He makes the difference.