This is the time of year known as “March Madness” for college basketball fans.

68 teams will be chosen on “selection Sunday”, this weekend, to play in what is also known as “the big dance”. A few teams are pretty well guaranteed to be selected because of the total games they have won and the caliber of competition they faced. Some will get in only because they have won their conference tournaments.

Some teams actually win the regular season conference title, but their resume is not strong enough unless they also win the conference tournament as well. There will be many teams who get disappointed because they are not considered to be good enough, so they are not chosen. I have been around long enough to sense that there is a little bit of politicking going on as well when it comes to who gets chosen and who gets left out.

What I am really trying to say is that for all teams there is not a guarantee when they start their season and for many teams when it comes time for selection Sunday.

I am so glad that this is not how it works with us getting into heaven after we pass from this earth. It is not determined by a resume of good works or of life’s accomplishments. It will be based on one thing, whether or not one has truly accepted the forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ. In the scriptures, John 1:5 makes it pretty simple when it says, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life”. The author John, in one of his other writings, tells us that we can know or be guaranteed that we have eternal life. 1 John 5:13 reminds us that “you may know that you have eternal life”.

The bad news for many teams is that they will not be invited into this yearend tournament but the good news for every one of us is that we have all been invited into God’s kingdom. The big question is, will you accept the invitation?