The Resurrection. It's been on my mind. And not just now, during Holy Week, when pretty much the whole world is thinking about it. This week, even the unbelieving world will look at Christians and wonder if there really might be something to our "crazy" [See Acts 26:24] belief that our God died as a man and walked out of His tomb three days later. Yes, everybody is thinking about The Resurrection this week.
The Resurrection has been on my mind a lot over the last 14 months. No, Renee's death is not the first to touch my life. Many family members, friends and acquaintances - some close and some less close - left this life before Renee. And, in each instance, the sadness was at least somewhat mellowed by thoughts of The Resurrection, by the belief that this grave was not the end, by the belief that we would meet again someday in a far better place. I mean, that is the Christian faith, right?
But, to be truthful, that belief, in my mind and spirit, while pretty solid and mostly unshakeable - to the extent that any belief with nothing to see and touch as proof can be considered to be "solid and unshakeable" - is not very specific on the details. At least not in my mind. And especially as it concerns Renee.
Is that a bad thing for a Christian to admit? Probably not. Faith is what it is - strong sometimes, weaker sometimes, doubting sometimes. "I believe; help my unbelief" [Mark 9:24] - is a perfect description of faith in many of us, most of the time.
Ah, but what about for a Christian who deigns to stand in a pulpit and "preach The Good News of Jesus" week in and week out? Surely a preacher should have a clear idea of what this "Good News" is all about, a clear idea of what it all means, a clear vision of what life in this "far better place" is going to look like and be like.
Well, I guess as a preacher, maybe I should. But I don't.
I mean, ok - there's going to be a lot of praising and feasting and music in Heaven. There's going to be lots of people there too, all of whom have been transformed in some way to be like Jesus - 1 John 3:2. And all of that is going to be off-the-scale awesome!
But that's about the end of my "clear" understanding. After that, my imagination kind of takes over to fill in the details. And in my imagination, I think that, despite everyone being transformed to be like Jesus, we will still be able to recognize one another. And maybe it goes beyond that. Perhaps we will even be able to recognize everyone - not just the relatively few people whom we personally knew "down here", but literally EVERYONE. I mean, Peter, John and James were able to recognize Moses and Elijah when they appeared with Jesus at his Transfiguration [see Matthew 17], and they had certainly never personally met those two saints of old. That is going to be amazing, and I am really looking forward to many such meetings, aren't you? I'm a little unclear on the details of how knowing everybody is going to work exactly, but I'm betting against name tags. How are they going to get everybody to wear name tags in Heaven? We sure can't make 'em wear 'em at church.
Are we all going to have the same personalities "up there" that we had "down here"? I'm kind of hoping not, at least for me, and for lots of others. Time for an up-grade, Amen?
Are we all going to look alike when we've been transformed to be like Jesus? Surely not. Will we look like we did at the time of our death? Hopefully not. Will we appear as the very best version of ourselves during our lifetime? That could be good - great, in fact, for some of you. For the rest of us, well, bless our hearts, I guess we'll just have to take what we get. And what about the people who died as infants and children - will they still seem to be that age?
Jesus was recognizable after His resurrection. Will we carry our "looks" into Heaven too? I guess so, but think of this - Jesus certainly arose from the grave with the scars of the nails and the spear. What does that mean for us? Will we carry our scars, our deformities, our handicaps into Heaven too? I want to say "NO"; my spirit needs to say: "NO, of course not!" But if the definitive answer is in The Word, I haven't found it yet.
And what about our relationships on Earth? Will those same relationships exist in Heaven? Jesus hinted that this will change - at least He flatly said it will change insofar as marriages are concerned - Matthew 22:30.
And suddenly, what The Resurrection is going to be like and look like directly affects me - beyond the [mere!] fact of arising bodily from the grave. The Resurrection is now of concern to my specific loss, and to how, if at all, that loss will be restored. Most of these other questions are interesting, and fun to think about or talk about. And what we look like, what kind of personality we will have, and whether or not we are someone's father, or mother, or son, or daughter, or brother, or sister, or friend in Heaven in the same way we were on Earth probably won't make that big of a difference there. Maybe all such things that were of such importance "down here" will fade into such insignificance in His presence "up there" that we won't even think about them any more. Strange, but, ok.
But this marriage thing - that's different in my mind. In fact, it's really hard for me to wrap my mind around right now. Renee will apparently not be my wife in Heaven. We're all, apparently, single in Heaven.
And, I guess, being single "up there" is all good. I guess it won't be strange to be around someone who was your spouse in this life, but is no longer your spouse in that life. I guess it won't be weird to spend all Eternity as a "passing acquaintance" of someone who, if you were doing marriage with them the right way "down here", became so much a part of you, and you became so much a part of them that the two of you actually became one. No, that won't be weird at all.
And that will be good. I'm glad they've got all of that figured out "up there". I sure don't have it figured out "down here".
But these days, I find myself thinking about The Resurrection. A lot. And even with all that thinking, I do not and cannot know much about what it's going to look like "up there" someday, and I do not and cannot know much about what it's going to be like "up there" someday. But I can say with full assurance that it is going to look, and it is going to be so much better in every way than "down here" right now that maybe the "details" aren't going to seem very important to us then, Amen?
And, no matter what, I will be glad to see her again.
My guess is that you are thinking the same thing right now about somebody. Aren't you glad The Resurrection is going to happen?
Ambrose Ramsey | Pastor and Shepherd
