Accepted

College applications require good grades, good test scores, and more. Heaven is different. 

Leah M. Kuchenbecker 

When I hear the words college applications, I automatically think of all the stress and worry that comes along with them. 

As I was entering high school as a freshman, I was already thinking about getting into college and what I needed to do to be successful throughout my high school career. I was already worrying about keeping my GPA high enough to get into a good college.  

I took the ACT my junior year of high school. This test brought even more stress as I studied to get a good score and waited to see my results of the test, hoping that it would be as high as I wanted it to be. Sometimes I wished someone else would just do it all for me.  

Now it is my senior year, and I am applying to college and hoping that all of my work has paid off. I am writing essays, trying to keep track of deadlines, and filling our resumes. I am also beginning to think about how I am going to pay to go to college. I need to apply for scholarships and loans. While doing all of this, I need to continue to keep my grades up because even if I get accepted into a college, I still will need to send them my final transcript of gradesAll of this work and stress is sometimes really overwhelming. Somedays I just want to give up and not go to college. As I wait for an acceptance or rejection letter, I wonder if I have done enough to make it into college. I wonder if I will be accepted.  

Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t run heaven like a college! 

We are full of sin, and by ourselves we can’t do anything to get into heaven. God wouldn’t even consider us for heaven if we had to get there on our own. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  

Thankfully, Jesus did it all for usJesus came to earth as a humble, lowly child to live perfectly since we can’t. He died on the cross, covered in our sins, so that we are perfect in God’s sight. Finally, Jesus rose from the dead to give us a completely free entrance into heaven. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We don’t have to be perfect or make up for our sins because Jesus did it all.  

We don’t need an application to enter heaven. There are no fees to pay, essays to write, or deadlines to meet. There is absolutely no worry or stress involved in our path to heaven because Jesus did it all.  

We don’t have to worry about how to pay for heaven either. We don’t need good works to earn our place or money to pay our way in. Heaven is a completely free gift given to us purely through God’s unmatchable grace. We can’t be rejected from heaven, and God won’t change his mind on us either. We will be with God forever in heaven at no cost to us.  

College applications may be stressful and hard work, but our application to heaven isn’t. Thanks to Jesus, we don’t need to apply. We are already accepted! 


Leah Kuchenbecker, a member at Morrison Zion, Greenleaf, Wisconsin, recently graduated from Manitowoc Lutheran High School, Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She will be attending Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota, in the fall. 


 

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Author: Leah M. Kuchenbecker 
Volume 106, Number 7
Issue: July 2019

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