The weeks between Ben's high school graduation ceremony and his departure for boot camp flew by. We were filled with trepidation and our trepidation increased with the understanding that his experience would most certainly change him.

"He won't be the same boy you send away," was the oft-repeated warning. We knew it was true. After all, it was the intent of the U.S. Marine Corps to transform this care-free, fun-loving youth into a fit fighting machine.

This transformation would be accomplished through strict discipline, a very structured regimen and repetition, repetition, repetition.

Apparently, they were successful. Several weeks later, we were present in the stands at MCRD in San Diego, Calif., when they called him "Marine" for the very first time.

And, as advertised, it was a life-changing experience, for him and in some ways, for Danny and me as well.

Training for each one of us begins at an early age. We seem to learn very quickly that a loud, persistent cry will bring mom or dad, or both, on the run right away. Tucking that little piece of information away, we soon discover that turning up the corners of our mouths results in expressions of delight and even more attention.

And the lessons continue. We learn how to do many wonderful things, seemingly without effort. In fact it looks a lot like play.

The lessons continue. In no time at all we're learning to talk, then to read, then to write. And a whole new world opens up.

The learning, it seems, never ends. We learn to ride a bike, drive a car, cook a seven-course dinner and get it all on the table simultaneously -- and then, just when we think we're done -- a new lesson plan is revealed. Maybe its a new job. Maybe its a chronic illness -- we or someone close to us receives a life-threatening and certainly life-changing diagnosis, and we're back on an entirely new learning curve.

Every day, in large and small ways, we learn how to live.

And, in the midst of learning new skills, we find ourselves learning new lessons in interpersonal relationships as well.

The relationships between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, sisters and brothers and husbands and wives are constantly changing. Each day we live and learn influences and impacts who we are when we wake the next morning. And who we are each new morning influences and impacts each relationship. Successful navigation of the new courses taken each day in these relationships requires careful attention to the details, not only of our own journey, but the journey of those with whom we share a common path.

This is true also with the relationship we have with God as Father and Jesus as Lord. Recognizing that the Lord God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, the same cannot be said about us. And that changes the dynamics of the relationship.

Some start with a view of God as a far-off, disinterested observer of human events, waiting only for the final exam on judgement day.

Others see him as someone just waiting for a human to mess up, giving him an excuse to let loose one of his lightning bolts.

Still others dress him in a red suit trimmed with white fur, expecting him to give them their heart's desire, whether it is good for them or not. And if he doesn't, he immediately falls out of favor.

Too many have given up trying to see him at all, and have expended their life's energy on disproving him, discrediting his works of creation, his works of restoration, and his works of redemption altogether.

But the more time we spend learning about God, his nature, his character, his value system, and his will, the more our relationship with him changes. And the more we study how Jesus lived when he lived here among us, the more we will understand what it is means to be a child of God.

When Ben entered boot camp, he knew he was in for a life-changing experience. And he wasn't disappointed. The Corps taught him what he would need to know to live and to survive, regardless of his circumstances.

It occurs to me that life is really nothing more nor less than God's version of boot camp. Here is where we learn how to live. Here is where we learn how to love. Here is where we learn how to wait.

Here is where we learn how and whom to praise. Here is where we discover worship and the one worthy of worship. To what purpose, one might wonder, when life ends in the grave? Ah, but it doesn't. Did you really think it did? All of these life lessons, carefully mapped out and applied, just to lie with us in a soon-to-be- forgotten grave? Certainly not.

We are here to learn how to live there, in the place the Lord has gone to prepare for us.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." -- Revelation 21:1-3 (NIV)

Things you won't see in heaven: Santa suits