“I want a ‘heart of gold’! I wanna go to heaven!”

Wednesday night we didn’t make it to church, so we had it on the front porch. Sort of.

Our youngest son plays with twin girls from next door after school just about every day. They are the same age and they get along quite nicely, despite the fact that many of the girls’ family members don’t like us (besides the fact we’re the wrong color, we don’t fit in with their drunken parties or their crack and pot smoking conferences that go on in the woods behind our houses) the kids get along great.

This was the first night I’ve ever gotten to really talk with them beyond a quick “hello” before the kids disappear into the bushes. They get in trouble if they talk to anyone but our son. But tonight, everybody was gone, so the girls and William played in the front yard.

After dinner, I went outside and sat on the step and did a few magic tricks. Their attention was undivided as they pulled up chairs from the front of our house and watched my every move. One of my tricks involves “mind reading.” In this specific trick, I tell my charge that I will give them a choice between three objects, but I already have their answer on a card in my pocket. They are to choose between a circle, triangle or square. The girls both chose “circle.”

I produce from my shirt pocket a green card with a gold circle on it. “What do you think of when you think of ‘gold?’” I ask. We talk about French fries, the sun, flowers, jewelry, etc. “Have you ever heard of someone having a ‘heart of gold?” I asked.

The girls are too young to have heard that, so I explain that we usually think of a person with a heart of gold as a good person. Holding up the card I asked, “Do you have a heart of gold? Are you a ‘good person?’” Of course they are! Certainly they have a heart of gold!

Holding the card in front of their faces I said, “Let’s take a test to see how ‘golden’ your heart is. Have you heard of the ‘Ten Commandments’?”

They had not. So we went through them, one by one. After teaching the list, they came up with a few of their own: treat people nice; don’t interrupt people when they are talking, etc. I was interested to know if they keep their own rules. They admitted they don’t.

“Have you ever told a lie?” I asked. They had. “What do you call people who tell lies?” I asked. “Liars.” Came the quick reply.

“Have you always obeyed your mommy and daddy? Do you always do what they tell you?” No, they don’t always obey. I reviewed the 5th Commandment with them.

Had they ever stolen anything? Yes, in various forms—even from each other. “But that’s ok. We’re sisters.” They argued. I doesn’t matter. In the eyes of a policeman, if you steal, even if you give back what you’ve stolen, you are still a thief. What happens to thieves?

They go to jail.

I held up the card with the gold circle again. “Remember when I asked if you had a heart of gold? You said you did.” I unfolded the card to reveal a black heart underneath.

“This is how God sees your heart because you have broken His Ten Commandments. You have broken His laws by lying, stealing and disobeying your parents . . .”

Before I could say anymore, one of the 10-year old girls looked at me and quietly asked, “does that mean we won’t go to heaven?” I froze. She got it. So did her sister. “Well, does a thief get to go free if he’s caught by police?” They shook their heads, no. “Would you like to know what God did so you could go to heaven?” I asked. They nodded excitedly.

I unfolded the card again to reveal a red cross underneath. “Do you know what this is?” I asked.

“It’s a church symbol!” They jumped up and down. “The ‘t’ means ‘church’!” They talked over each other telling me how they go to church.

I told them that God became a man and lived a perfect life on this earth and people hated Him because He was perfect. “Sort of like a goodie two-shoes,” the girls explained, “nobody likes a ‘goodie two-shoes.’”

“Why?” I wanted to know.

“Because people like to do bad things, and a ‘goodie two-shoes’ likes to do what is good so nobody likes them.” The girls explained. They got it.

I held up the card with the red cross on it and told them that a cross was two pieces of wood nailed together. Jesus was nailed to a cross and died there because 1) He was perfect; and 2) He loved us so much that He did not want us to die in our sin (the black heart) so He shed His blood, died, and came back to life again three days later.

I had hardly finished when one of the girls said, “I wanna go to heaven.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I want a heart of gold,” one sister said. The other said, “Me too! I want a heart of gold. I want to go to heaven!”

I was not prepared for what I was hearing, but oh, the joy was welling up in my heart!

“We need to pray!” I said. “Would you like to pray and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to clean the sin from your heart and ask Him to save you so you can go to heaven?” I walked them through 1 John 1:9 and John 3:16. They jumped up and down with excitement!

We bowed our heads in prayer, right there on our front step and each girl said her own prayer, telling Him they were sorry for their sin and how much they wanted not to have a heart black with sin. They both asked for a heart of gold and how much they wanted heaven.

When we finished praying, I held up the card showing the red cross once more. “Do you believe that because Jesus died to pay the price for your sins that your sins are washed away and you are clean?” They nodded. I folded the card once more and their jaws dropped when they saw the white heart. The girls had their own little party, “We’re clean! We’re clean!” They danced around.

I gave them two different gospel tract/comic books each and a curved illusion (one more magic trick) that they could show their family. The girls ran home with squeals of delight while William and I took a minute to thank God for letting us stay and have church at home.

I wish it could always be that easy.