Friday Thought -- August 5, 2011

Good Morning Friends,

“Jesus replied, ‘The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.’” (Luke 20:34-38)

The life we live in eternity will be different in many ways from our life in this age. Jesus mentions a couple of those differences in this passage.

There won’t be any marriage. That seems strange because marriage is such an integral part to life here and now. Having a partner in life makes life more enjoyable and satisfying. How can life in eternity be satisfying without the kind of partner that marriage brings? Perhaps that is the point. A professor I had in college used to tell us that it wasn’t that his relationship with his wife would be worse and less close in heaven than it was on earth, but that the relationships he enjoyed with the multitudes in heaven would rise to a new level of closeness. Perhaps the best of marriage is only a glimpse of the kind of close relationship we’ll have with everyone in eternity.

We really don’t know what the relationships in heaven will be like, but can rest assured that the best of earth is only a small glimpse of beginning of eternity.

One more difference between this age and eternity that Jesus mentioned – there will be no death in eternity. I know of nothing that casts a darker shadow on life here than death. The prospect of our own approaching death brings anxiety to most and fear to many. The deaths of those we love, even when they are expected and come at the end of a long life, still bring deep grief. The unexpected deaths of those whose lives are cut short rip at the very fabric of our emotions.

What a joy to consider a place and a time where the shadow of death will no longer hang over us – that’s eternity – that’s heaven.

His, by Grace,

Steve