I warn you: if you love baseball, this devotional is going to make you jealous. You might get jealous even if you don’t love baseball. That’s because…well, let me explain.
Recently, we received a very generous gift: four tickets to a major league baseball game. We were seated in the front row of the ballpark. Right. Behind. Home. Plate. Despite having ticketed seats, we arrived at the ballpark an hour before the game. That’s because a complimentary sirloin and seafood buffet was also included at a restaurant upstairs. After stuffing ourselves silly, we left the restaurant and proceeded toward the section where our seats were located. As we came to the top of the stairs, an attendant stood ready to check our tickets. The attendant looked at my ticket, smiled, and said, “Go on down!” He gestured toward the front row.
The section was pretty full, and as we walked down the stairs, we passed between rows and rows of people, all seated and waiting for the game to start. We kept descending, passing more and more seats. We walked right to the front row, where another attendant met us and checked our tickets again to make sure not only that we belonged in that section, 
but that we belonged in one of the front two rows. The ones with comfy seats, and a game program, popcorn, and peanuts waiting for us. Where the aforementioned attendant would get us anything we needed throughout the game. We sat down in our seats and settled in comfortably, just in time to watch the first batter walk to the plate only yards in front of us.
Obviously, it was an amazing experience. It was one we never could have achieved on our own. But because of our friend’s gift, we belonged there.
Yet as incredible as this gift was, I’ve received one that’s even greater. So have you, if you’ve committed your life to Christ. When Christ is your Friend, you get far more than the chance to enjoy your beloved sport in grand style—you also gain access to God Himself and to His heaven. Someday, just as I walked into that ballpark, you and I will walk into heaven itself, and we will belong there. We’ll have a right to be there because Christ purchased our access for us. We’ll walk boldly not to the front row, but to the throne of grace. We’ll spend eternity not in the presence of an attendant who will bring us bottled water, but in the presence of the God who created water, and everything else that is.
Sometimes, we don’t feel worthy to enter God’s heaven and approach Him boldly. You know what? We’re not worthy. None of us can demand to sit in the front row because of who we are. We can only take our seats there because of who our Friend is. Likewise, when we have a front-row ticket, we shouldn’t be sitting up in the nosebleed seats because we don’t feel worthy to use the ticket. Again, it doesn’t matter one single bit who we are. Those attendants at the ballpark didn’t care who I was. All they cared about was that the person who purchased those tickets said we belonged. She didn’t say we belonged in the farthest reaches of the bleachers. She said we belonged right down there behind home plate. It would have been ridiculous for us to accept the tickets she offered, then refuse to sit where we were assigned because we didn’t feel good enough. She paid the price. She gets to determine who sits in those seats. Likewise, Jesus paid the price for those who believe in Him. He gets to determine that those people get to enter heaven.
The ballpark analogy falls a little short of the heavenly one, however. As amazing as those tickets were, they didn’t entitle me to access to the dugout or to the playing field. I couldn’t just waltz over, sit down by the star pitcher, and strike up a conversation. I would have been thrown out. Maybe thrown in jail. What Jesus purchased for us, however, allows us full access to heaven and, more importantly, to God. Jesus didn’t purchase one of heaven’s nosebleed seats (though even that would have been more than we deserved). He didn’t allow us to come only so far, but no farther. He purchased the best seats in the house: the seats right in God’s lap.
The luxury of that ballgame was a privilege to be enjoyed for a few hours, and then for all the times I will think of the memories we made there. But God intends for us to enjoy the magnificence of heaven for all eternity. The game’s never going to end. We’ll never have to leave. We’ll never pick our way through peanut shells and dropped coupons for free tacos, thinking that the experience was nice while it lasted. We’ll enjoy heaven forever and ever, and unlike a baseball game that might go to 47 innings, we’ll never become bored. Our delight will increase throughout all eternity.
This is what the old line in the song “Blessed Assurance” means—“oh, what a foretaste of glory divine”. Any pleasure we enjoy on this earth is but a dim reflection of the joy waiting for us in heaven. And if I enjoyed that game as much as I did, I can only imagine what heaven will be like!
Someday, I won’t have to imagine anymore. I’ll know what heaven’s like, because I’ll be there. You will too, if you’ve given your life to the Lord. Why, because we deserve it? No. Because our Friend has paid the price. Do you have your ticket?
Hebrews 4:14-16—Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.