Those of you old enough to remember Harry Belafonte, may remember his hit song of 1959 (yeah, I’m THAT old). Not only do I remember the lyrics, I remember laying down on the floor in our house on Milburn St., in front of the TV, and hearing another singer crooning that song. And I remember weeping at it. I was probably around 11 years old.

The opening lyrics were simple; they were a father singing to his daughter:

Where are you going my little one? Little one
Where are you going, my baby, my own?
Turn around and you’re two, turn around and you’re four
Turn around and you’re a young girl going out of the door

I’m not sure why they hit me so profoundly at the time. The closest I come to knowing my own heart at that time, was the realization, even then, that life would not continue always as it was right then. That I would change. My parents would grow older. That the closest of all relationships would stage after stage, morph. And I didn’t want that. I wanted the security of things remaining as they were. A reasonable desire, but an unreasonable expectation.

Many years later that song would haunt me as I experienced my own “little one”, my daughter. The truth of – before you know it – your own dearest one would turn 2 so quickly, then 4, and then…out of the door. It makes me misty even to contemplate these words again, even as my “Bug”, my daughter is a grown woman with a wonderful family of her own, and her own little ones who every time she turns around, are getting older, almost magically and imperceptibly. All too fast. And yet, this is the way of life. It always was and will be until Christ returns. And the question the lyricist first asked, is the same one Scripture itself puts before each one of us even now.

Let me ask you reader – where are you going? And if you can hear the words of the Heavenly Father asking that question, it takes on eternal significance.

So it is we read in Proverbs 4:25 “Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.”

When contemplating any course of action, it only makes sense to ask: “Where will this take me? What is the end of what I am contemplating?” In either word or deed.

But of course, this also begs the question of whether or not I am on my way to anywhere at all? 

If one were to pursue a career as a lawyer – they would plot out a course that would take them there. The right undergraduate courses in college, and then Law School. Then setting their sights on passing the Bar, and then – then the practice of Law itself. It is the same with anything in life. To be a teacher, a race car driver, an electrician – name it. But as the old saying goes, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it – too.

Setting a course in the natural is one thing – but how many actually contemplate setting a course toward Heaven? Do we imagine we will just stumble in there someday? That “being” a Christian is the end game, the goal itself? Do we forget Jesus words: Matthew 7:13–14 (ESV) — 13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Why do so few find it? Why do so few enter in? Because so few are actually looking for it and seeking to enter in.  

If you are aiming at entering heaven, keep your eyes on that destination, and make the decisions which coincide with going there. Keep looking for the door of that Great City. Keep your eyes fixed on what you intend to do and be there – and who you are longing to spend eternity with.

No one will get there by accident. Only those who inquire as to The Way – Jesus – and who order their lives to go there to be with Him and the Father. 

Where are you going?