Missing In Action
Al Capone was a famous American gangster operating in Chicago during the1920s. He was involved in bootlegging and violence. However, he was successfully imprisoned for something that may seem unrelated, income tax evasion. After being sent to Federal prison because of this “technicality”, Capone attended various religious services in prison. He expressed a desire to place faith in Jesus Christ but the prison officials were skeptical, having seen this pattern of fake conversion many times before in inmates. He was released from prison but experienced a series of serious health problems. He died at home aged 48.
But was his conversion real? Maybe not but might we be very surprised one day?
While I was in Cuba in about 2000, I stayed with a Cuban pastor and his family. They had a little girl, about 5 years old. She adopted me. She had to hold my hand and walk with me whenever we went anywhere. (I had a grandson, 4, which also went through this phase.)
When the little girl was 4, she participated in a singing or dancing event. She got first place at this competition. This was some kind of big deal. It was televised nationally. She even got to meet President Fidel Castro and sit on his lap and talk with him. She said to him, “Jesus loves you”.
Castro began tearing up and did not know what to say. Finally he replied, “And I know that Jesus loves you, too”.
This man was responsible for plunging millions of people into unspeakable suffering. But...might we be very surprised one day?
A man was telling about his recent visit to heaven. I have to admit, I am skeptical about these reports. Not that I believe people cannot visit there but because so many people turn out to be accomplished liars. Nonetheless, some of these stories are very revealing. The ring of truth seems to be in some of these reports.
The man told of finding himself in a heavenly place. He met several people that he knew or knew of. He met a relative that I think was an uncle. After a joyous reunion the man asked his uncle about Aunt Susan. “Where is she?” The uncle smiled kindly but did not respond.
“You know, your wife!”, the man explained.
Again his uncle seemed to not know what the visitor was talking about. The uncle was so kind and polite. He seemed to show extra patience with this man who was an obvious visitor to this place.
Later, the man who gave this strange report said:
It seems that the permanent residents of that place (Heaven) do not have any awareness of those who are NOT there.
Forgotten in the absolute sense? Unthinkable. I do not even want to think about it. My dad used to say, “How can we possibly enjoy heaven knowing that some friends and family members are not there?”
How? No how, that's how. Heaven is a place of remarkable intellect but it also seems to be a place of forgetting. We will not think about the way things used to be. There must be some things that are hidden from our awareness.
Note: This “forgetting” must be after some things are addressed and taken care of (2 Cor 5:10).
So, there is nothing more urgent than placing faith in Christ now.
Dec. 7, 2025