Searching For Heaven

Searching for Heaven

John couldn’t remember how often he had gone to bed with an empty belly. His single mom barely eked out a living in a tollbooth. When she dragged herself home at night, she had little energy left for her son. Maybe that’s why he grew up with a legendary appetite for food, booze, women, and applause.

When his mom died, John dropped out of school and headed for Broadway. When he failed to make it on the stage, he was on to Hollywood. There he landed bit parts in forgettable movies. Along the way, he discovered a knack for slapstick comedy, a flair for music, and the ability to dance with uncommon grace. He channeled those talents into a nightclub act. But he was better known for the orgies in his hotel suite. John was drowning in a sea of booze. His Tinseltown buddies whispered, “Our funny fat friend will never make it.”

But John did make it when he landed the lead role in one of television’s first sitcoms: The Life of Riley. By 1950 he was hosting a variety show that became the highest-rated program on television. Every week, millions tuned in to watch him glide across the stage with America’s most beautiful dancers. He created comic characters that are etched in television legend. None is more beloved than bumbling bus driver Ralph Kramden. He parlayed that role into his biggest sitcom, The Honeymooners. By now you remember John by his stage name, Jackie. Jackie Gleason starred in twenty-seven movies, recorded sixty-five albums of music, and won almost every award in stage and film before being inducted into television’s Hall of Fame.

He made the whole world laugh, but his private life was no laughing matter. He made millions of dollars, only to waste his fortune trying to satisfy his insatiable appetites. Little Johnny grew into fat Jackie, but he could never fill his emptiness. He confessed to friends that there must be something better out there beyond this world. So he became obsessed with parapsychology, UFOs, and extraterrestrials, accumulating the world’s largest private library on the paranormal. Jackie even built one of his luxury homes in the shape of a UFO.

Before Gleason died, Mort Sahl of WRC radio asked him, “Jackie, as a man who has seen and done it all, is there anything left that you still want to do?”

The entertainer replied, “I want to see the face of God.”

Sahl chuckled uneasily. “Do you mean that you want to go to heaven?”

“I suppose so,” replied Gleason. “But mostly, I want to see God.” Then he quietly said, “But I don’t know how to get to heaven.”

Down deep, everyone wants to see God. Saint Augustine said, “God has created us for himself, and we will be restless until we find our rest in him.” Are you hungry today for more? French philosopher Blaise Pascal declared, “Nothing less than heaven will ever satisfy earthlings.” Gleason would agree, but he didn’t know how to get to heaven. God’s Son has an answer for Jackie, and for all of us:

In Jesus you see the face of God. Through him you get to heaven.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6, NIV