We Gotta Ask 'Cause We Never Know

Today the girls and I went to lunch. We developed a great rapport with our waiter, Jeffery.
As he walked away after a nice conversation, I told the girls, "I think we should ask him if he died tomorrow, where he would spend eternity."
Of course, I got the eye roll.
Tori asked, "Why do we have to do this everytime?" in a rather disheartened voice.
"What if when Jeffery gets to heaven & Jesus asks why he should let him in, he doesn't have an answer?" I responded.
More eye rolling.
I kept going, "What if Jeffery gets to heaven and Jesus says 'Depart from me I never knew you & Jeffery goes to hell & (I began to get a little dramatic just for fun) he starts to burn in hell & his whole body is burning & he is screaming in pain..."
Just about that time a baby from another table screamed at the top of his lungs.
We all kind of looked at each other funny & started to laugh, "That was too weird," Nicole said.
This had their attention, so I added, "What are we going to say to Jesus when we get to heaven & he says, 'You remember Jeffery? He could be in heaven with us right now, but you didn't ask him the question."
About that time Jeffery walked up & Tori whispered, "Ask him."
I whispered back, "You ask him."
"No, you."
"No, you."
Jeffery was just about to walk away & Tori said, "Jeffery, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," he said.
"If you died tomorrow where would you spend eternity?" (I couldn't believe she did it!)
"In heaven I hope," he replied. "I've been pretty good," he explained.
Tori continued by asking if he thought being good would get him to heaven. When he finally admitted he did, she asked if he had heard of Jesus. He acknowledged that he did.
"Tell me 3 things you know about Jesus," she questioned.
He was stumped, he couldn't think of anything.
Tori wasn't sure where to take the conversation, so I jumped in & asked if I could tell him the 1 way to get into heaven.
He put his hands on the table, leaned over, and said, "Please."
We explained that Jesus is the only way and how Christ died for him so that they could have a relationship with Jesus and he wouldn't spend eternity in hell. (& wouldn't have to burn in pain screaming like a baby, just kidding, we left that part out)
He asked several questions & thanked us several times. He told us we were the best customers he had all day!

We didn't pray with him right there but, we learned 1 lesson:

We gotta ask the question EVERY TIME because we never know how that 1 question can affect someone for eternity.

I know this sounds a little radical, but a friend asked me once, "What if we imagined every person we see dangling by a thread over hell?" Would we be more eager to ask that 1 quesiton?

We gotta ask because we never know!