Thirteen Inches From Heaven

When I was in elementary school, math was not my favorite subject.
I did well only by working hard.
Math was never second nature to me.
Reading and writing were so enjoyable and never seemed like work.

But math was another story.
I liked math in the beginning when things made sense to me.
For instance, when I memorized multiplication tables and when I learned long division.
However getting into the higher math of algebra, geometry, and calculus was painful.

It was like nails on a chalkboard to me.
I could never see the benefit.
I used to think they should have a class of everyday math for people like me.
People who never wanted to be a engineer or an architect.

I pushed through and plugged away.
And then I married an engineer who loved science and math.
A man who took higher-level math, just because he could and because he wanted to.
It has served him well; as for me, the verdict is still out.

The one thing I used to love was measuring things.
I remember the old wooden rulers that most of us had sticking out of a binder.
The rulers had a metal edge that was so handy in ripping pages out of notebooks.
That same metal edge got your fingers dirty whenever you drew a line with a marker.

Measuring and I were friends.
Friends until I had to discern all the little lines between the inch lines.
One quarter, one half, and three quarter lines were easy.
The other little lines were trickier.

We had a wooden yardstick that was always in the corner of our coat closet.
It was something my mother readily pulled out to measure windows for curtains.
Most yardsticks back then had advertisements written on them.
I now see those same yardsticks at antique stores selling for a decent amount.

It was the twelve-inch ruler that was needed for school.
Twelve inches.
One foot.
One third of a yard.

I never pondered thirteen inches until a friend called me on the phone.
She and her four sisters and two brothers lived down the street.
She was the oldest of the seven children.
I only saw her when I was at their house with her younger sisters.

But time and distance have a way of bringing people together.
That and the Lord.
This friend is a strong believer in Jesus.
What wonderful talks we have had each time we catch up by phone.

It was my writing that caused her to call me initially.
Through the daily whispers, she knew that I was a believer in Jesus.
I remember the question she asked me in that first conversation.
I know you’re a born-again Christian and I had to know, how did you come to Christ?

She was bold in her questions and bolder still in her testimony.
We now have a sweet friendship because we have the Lord in common.
There is a bond between us that will never be severed.
We were young girls together and now we are sisters in the Lord.

To think that we grew up on the same street and one day we will spend eternity together.
God is good.
We have shared stories and caught up with each other’s lives.
She is an amazing woman.

She has battled breast cancer and came out the other side, victorious.
She has dealt with diabetes her entire life, which has now affected her vision.
She has no vision in her right eye and only 10% sight in her left eye.
She has had a kidney transplant and her husband was the donor.

She has had heart issues that are a result of the chemotherapy.
She had bypass surgery and heart characterizations with an allergic reaction to the dye.
God blessed her with a son when she was never supposed to have children.
She is now a grandmother, a fighter, and a victor.

She will tell you how she came out the other side of her trials, victorious.
It is faith in Jesus Christ that got me through.
That is not cliche; those are not just words.
She means it; you cannot help but talk about the Lord if your talk to her.

She is an evangelist in the truest sense of the word.
She is not shy about her faith.
She will tell everyone, everywhere about the Lord Jesus.
She wants others to know that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone.

When we talked the other morning she said something that has not left me.
She was talking about how burdened she is for the lost.
They know about Jesus in their head but they do not know Him in their heart.
They are thirteen inches from heaven.

They are thirteen inches from heaven.
The distance from your head to your heart is keeping them from the Lord Jesus.
It seems like such a small amount yet it is a Grand Canyon of difference in salvation.
The distance from your head to your heart is vast.

Head knowledge is not enough.
It is not enough to say you know Jesus intellectually.
That head knowledge has to travel down and settle in your heart.
It has to become such a part of you that Jesus is the center of your life, your all in all.

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jonathan Edwards has a great illustration using honey to make this point.
In his sermon, Divine and Supernatural Light, Edwards talked about head knowledge.

Your mind can know honey is sweet, people can tell you it’s sweet, you’ve read books about it, etc. but if you haven’t actually tasted it, you know with your head, but not with your heart. When you actually taste it, you experience it for yourself, you know it in a full way, and you can know it in your heart.

You can have head knowledge without the heart knowledge to go along with it.
However, it is impossible to know things in your heart, but not know them in your head.
In order to come to saving faith, you must know the Gospel in your head first.
That Truth must travel down to your heart, settle there, grow there, and thrive there.

Thirteen inches from heaven.
How many people are only that distance away from eternity with Jesus?
Measuring by a ruler, that distance seems minuscule.
Measuring against eternity, that distance is an abyss.

Do you know Jesus?
Do you know Him in your head?
Do you know Him in your heart?
It matters greatly that the great divide of thirteen inches is connected.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. (Psalm 34:8)

Taste and see.
Know Him in your head and in your heart.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to close the gap.
Don’t let thirteen inches keep you from and eternity with the Lord Jesus.