I hope there’s ice cream in heaven. I know I won’t be sad if there isn’t, but if there is, that will be special.

Until recently, I hadn’t had ice cream for two and half years. And then I bought some while I was shopping, mostly because I saw the kinds of ice cream my kids were buying and was not impressed. So I bought a brand without all the added fillers and flavors, and … no one ate it. For weeks. So to prove to them how good it was, I scooped some into a bowl.

And here’s what you need to know: It’s raspberry season. We grow two kinds of raspberries at the Swenson home. The black raspberries ripen first. So I topped my bowl of vanilla ice cream with fresh black raspberries, a few frozen blueberries, and a few fresh strawberries my husband, Steve, bought from a stand down the street.

Let me tell you, when they say you start an addiction right where you left off, they are not wrong. Here I am, a few weeks after the first taste, weening myself off of ice cream.

Every time I get caught up in how wonderful and amazing something is, I can’t help but think about heaven. And while I wonder if the amazing thing will or won’t be part of heaven, mostly what I think about is how God longs for everyone to be there. Team Jesus is not exclusive. The late Christian singer Rich Mullins used to say that God didn’t have any taste. Rich wasn’t wrong. God doesn’t just recruit the brightest and the best. God wants everyone to know Jesus lived and died for them. Everyone: the poorest, the oddest, the simplest, the people who have messed everything up, everyone.

More than anything, God wants to have that relationship with us. He doesn’t want us to worry about how things will work out. He wants us to turn to him for help, because he’s big enough to deal with all the things we can’t. And God doesn’t want us to get caught up in all the distractions of entertainment and work and chores and life that keep us from the stuff that matters, like life and death and souls and eternal destinies.

God loves us and loves to lavish us with his love. Isn’t that what we long for more than anything? So if you’re worried today, know there is a God in heaven who longs for you to turn to him. And if you’re lonely, be assured he sees you and knows your needs. And if you think you’ve messed up too much to be able to turn to God, rest assured that you are wrong. Jesus welcomed a thief dying on a cross next to him into heaven that very day. No matter how awkward or less than you think you are, Jesus offers you a place on Team Jesus.

Being on Team Jesus comes with all the benefits of being a son or daughter of the King. It’s a new identity, a new eternal home in heaven, and the exclusive benefit of being able to run to your heavenly Father any day, any time, with anything that is on your mind.

The roster is never full. There’s always room for more. So bring your misfit friends and odd neighbors, your annoying brother or greedy whomever. Because no one is like Jesus, and those of us who are already on the team can’t wait for you to be on it too!