{"id":6291,"date":"2023-05-08T08:30:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T16:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?p=6291"},"modified":"2023-04-14T12:05:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:05:26","slug":"kids-heaven-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Martin Luther said, \u201cIt is pleasing to the dear God whenever thou rejoicest or laughest from the bottom of thy heart.\u201d\u00a0And who does that more frequently and sincerely than children? Talking to kids about Heaven was the focus of an interview I did with Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, for his radio program about my book\u00a0Heaven for Kids<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Greg and his wife Cathe certainly get how tough life can be. Years ago, Greg called me after his son Christopher died to talk about Heaven, and we have talked about Christopher and Heaven many times since. I always enjoy our conversations, in part because we talk about deep and meaningful subjects, including grief and suffering, but we also have a lot of fun together.<\/p>\n

At the end of the interview, Greg and I spent some time ribbing each other. I asked his permission while we were recording to use some of the humorous outtakes, which wouldn\u2019t be included in the official Harvest broadcast, and put them on our website. I thought people might enjoy hearing the kinds of things that are done in interviews that never make it to the public, but are just harmless fun.<\/p>\n

As the years have passed, God has enabled me to experience more frequent times of happiness even in the midst of difficulties. His gift of laughter is a huge part of that; in fact, sometimes it\u2019s like a ladder that helps me climb out of deep holes. A close friend once told me, \u201cI always know when you\u2019re hurting. You joke and laugh more.\u201d<\/p>\n

I will grant that I am an unusual person; however, Greg is one of the most unusual people I have ever known! Several years ago when I was visiting Harvest Church, at each of the three services, he introduced me and announced I had written a \u201cnew\u201d book. These are the three titles:<\/p>\n

\"Books\"<\/p>\n

Years later, we\u2019re still joking about burgers. In fact, Greg asked me about hamburgers in Heaven at the end of our interview, and he recently shared that clip from our EPM website on Twitter. Unfortunately, a few commenters didn\u2019t seem to understand that we were having fun. One said, \u201cSeriously?\u201d Another said, \u201cI only care about seeing Jesus in Heaven. Anything else is superfluous and irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

I do, in fact, believe there are a lot more important questions about Heaven to cover than whether we\u2019ll eat hamburgers! But as Charles Spurgeon said, \u201cThose who are \u2018beloved of the Lord\u2019\u00a0must be the most happy and joyful people to be found anywhere upon the face of the earth.\u201d And I believe it pleases Jesus when, in childlike faith, we delight in and look forward to the wonderful home He\u2019s prepared for us.<\/p>\n

You can listen to\u00a0my full interview with Greg<\/a>, or listen to the parts that interest you below:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0How are things going personally for you as grieve? Do you see Heaven differently because of your experience of grief? Why should we think deeply about Heaven?<\/a><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Is Heaven going to be a boring place?<\/a><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0What is the biggest misunderstanding kids have about Heaven? Won\u2019t life on the New Earth be even better than our present life?<\/a><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0How do we train young minds to see Heaven as real? Will this book help kids understand Heaven is real?<\/a><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0What is Heaven? Where is Heaven? Most importantly, how do we get to Heaven?<\/a><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Why do you invite kids to have their parents take them on an excursion to the junk yard? Why does investing in eternity matter? Why should Christians be generous in this life?<\/a><\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Will we be different than angels in Heaven? Do we become angels?<\/a><\/p>\n

8.\u00a0When a child experiences death and loss, is that a good time to begin a conversation about Heaven?<\/a><\/p>\n

9.\u00a0What happens to pets when they die? Might there be talking animals in Heaven?<\/a><\/p>\n

10.\u00a0Should children\u2019s understanding of Heaven be based on a progressive explanation?<\/a><\/p>\n

11.\u00a0What is the most challenging question to answer about Heaven? What about sports in Heaven?<\/a><\/p>\n

12.\u00a0How can investing in others\u2019 success during playing sports be a preview of Heaven?<\/a><\/p>\n

13.\u00a0When you order a burger, what do you order on it? Will there be hamburgers in Heaven?<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo by\u00a0Polina Tankilevitch<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martin Luther said, \u201cIt is pleasing to the dear God whenever thou rejoicest or laughest from the bottom of thy heart.\u201d\u00a0And who does that more frequently and sincerely than children? Talking to kids about Heaven was the focus of an interview I did with Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, for his radio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2661,"featured_media":6297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[35,4100,15,5646,91,2166,5349,68,2169,1087],"class_list":["post-6291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heaven","tag-children","tag-enjoy","tag-eternity","tag-funny","tag-greg-laurie","tag-harvest","tag-heaven-for-kids","tag-humor","tag-interview","tag-podcast"],"yoast_head":"\nKids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At the end of the interview, Greg and I spent some time ribbing each other. I asked his permission while we were recording to use some of the humorous outtakes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At the end of the interview, Greg and I spent some time ribbing each other. I asked his permission while we were recording to use some of the humorous outtakes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-08T16:30:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-14T20:05:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/644\/2023\/04\/kids-heaven-humor.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1119\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"693\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@randyalcorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/\",\"name\":\"Kids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-08T16:30:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-14T20:05:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035\"},\"description\":\"At the end of the interview, Greg and I spent some time ribbing each other. I asked his permission while we were recording to use some of the humorous outtakes.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/\",\"name\":\"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn\",\"description\":\"Fixing Our Eyes on the Unseen\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035\",\"name\":\"Randy Alcorn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ceeeb250f2eea4bbebda1e7147d32b2e?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ceeeb250f2eea4bbebda1e7147d32b2e?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Randy Alcorn\"},\"description\":\"Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author of over fifty books, including Heaven (over one million sold), The Treasure Principle (over two million sold), If God is Good, Happiness, and the award-winning novel Safely Home.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.epm.org\/blog\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/randyalcorn\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/author\/ralcorn\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers","description":"At the end of the interview, Greg and I spent some time ribbing each other. I asked his permission while we were recording to use some of the humorous outtakes.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers","og_description":"At the end of the interview, Greg and I spent some time ribbing each other. I asked his permission while we were recording to use some of the humorous outtakes.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/","og_site_name":"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn","article_published_time":"2023-05-08T16:30:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-14T20:05:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1119,"height":693,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/644\/2023\/04\/kids-heaven-humor.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Randy Alcorn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@randyalcorn","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Randy Alcorn","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/","name":"Kids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-05-08T16:30:06+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-14T20:05:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035"},"description":"At the end of the interview, Greg and I spent some time ribbing each other. I asked his permission while we were recording to use some of the humorous outtakes.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2023\/05\/kids-heaven-humor\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kids, Questions about Heaven, and Humor over Hamburgers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/","name":"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn","description":"Fixing Our Eyes on the Unseen","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035","name":"Randy Alcorn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ceeeb250f2eea4bbebda1e7147d32b2e?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ceeeb250f2eea4bbebda1e7147d32b2e?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Randy Alcorn"},"description":"Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author of over fifty books, including Heaven (over one million sold), The Treasure Principle (over two million sold), If God is Good, Happiness, and the award-winning novel Safely Home.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.epm.org\/blog","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/randyalcorn"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/author\/ralcorn\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}