Let me tell you a story about a man named James Terrence John Molloy.   J. T., as everyone knew him, was a traveling evangelist, and he had a wish.

When the time came for the Lord to call him home, he had a “druther.”

He wanted to be traveling on a road, going up to the crest of a hill and die at the top.  J. T. said he would keep on going up the hill and on into heaven.

And he did.  He lived a long life, preached the gospel, started churches, had children and grandchildren, and raised Poland China pigs.

One day on the way to visit his son, he died instantly of a heart attack

. . . in his car

. . . on a hill.

The car was still running when they found him.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote of the journey of life in the Walking Song

 the road goes ever on and on

I think about heaven as I travel dirt and gravel country roads, about following a road that begins in one world and ends in another.

 The path of life leads upward . . .

Proverbs 15:24.  NIV

This is what the Lord says:  “Stand at the crossroads and look; 

ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, 

and you will find rest for your souls.”  

Jeremiah 6:16.  NIV

 In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality

Proverbs 12:28

That story about J.T., how do I know it’s true?  He is my husband’s great-grandfather, and if I had my druthers, I’d keep going up the hill to heaven, too.

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