While cleaning the house on Saturday afternoon, my husband began one of our many discussions about God, the universe, and our place in it. I don’t know if that’s typical conversation for a married couple while dusting the TV stand, but it is for us.
“I hope I get to be with you every day in heaven,” George said to me. I smiled. I dearly hope that too. “But it’s weird to consider that I won’t be able to hug you in heaven. I feel like I’ll miss that – but I guess I won’t. It’s heaven after all.” I paused for a moment, confused.
“Do you think there are rules against hugging in heaven?” I asked him. He lifted an eyebrow quizzically.
“Babe, we won’t have bodies in heaven – we will only be spirits – souls,” he answered me. I was taken aback. I had never considered a lack of body. I actually couldn’t even conceive of such a thing. But I hadn’t much considered the details either.
“What makes you think that?” I asked him. He answered that our bodies die, but our soul lives on – logically without a body. I suppose that would make logistical sense in a way, and I think that’s probably a way many Christians consider the afterlife, although most doctrines include the teaching of bodily resurrection. However, even my own daughter once told me she thought of heaven as being an existing soul in a box… Maybe the teaching isn’t as common knowledge as the Church would like to think?
I’m not sure I like the idea of a heaven where I can’t hug those I love – to include Jesus. I imagine His very real presence and the complete spiritual and physical surrender of hugging him as nothing short of ecstasy and ultimate peace wrapped in one perfect package.
My personal interpretation of heaven has altered a lot through the years. As a young child, it was merely where we went after death “to be with God.” An easy enough concept for a child but an unsatisfying one when I entered adolescence and young adulthood. What does it actually mean to “be with God”?
As I grew older, I was introduced to more complex ideas. In college, I studied Paradise Lost by John Milton, which discussed an often-believed view of Heaven as singing hymns to God morning, noon, and night – though Milton’s story doesn’t portray that as truth within his narrative. I’ll admit I saw Heaven that way, and I wasn’t exactly excited about the prospect. I wasn’t the biggest fan of organ music and extended preaching. Still, singing requires a voice – so logically, a body?
“I’m pretty sure we will have bodies in heaven,” I told George. His eyes lit up – he knew what was coming. We were about to pull out the Bible, or at least the Bible app.
“Where’s your reasoning?” he asked me, genuinely ready to delve into the mysteries of the afterlife as we moved on to sweeping dog hair off the floors.
I pondered aloud that God made the earth perfect at the start, and Revelation confirms that God’s plan to return to earth to its original perfection. As such, in His perfect creation, Adam’s body was created before God breathed His spirit into Him. From the beginning, man was designed with a body – and would therefore have one in the new earth. George flipped to Revelation on His Bible app and read,
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God (Revelation 21:1-3 ESV).”
George nodded, “It does sound like a new earth would be similar to this one – but perfect.” He moved on to putting away dishes on the countertop. I pulled out my Bible app to ponder another passage about life after death. I read, “And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus (Mark 9:4 ESV).”
Presumably, Elijah and Moses are in the intermediate heaven, where believers go to be with God before Jesus returns to earth. Where George and I will likely spend some time together, unless Jesus returns before we die. In this passage Elijah and Moses have physical forms – enough to be recognized by Peter, James, and John. They also speak with Jesus, confirming that that have voices.
“So, we will have bodies!” George said excitedly. As I begin wiping down the countertops, I am also happy that we can infer bodily form in heaven. God created the human form in His likeness, and I long to bear that likeness in eternity.
George stops my wiping to pull me in his arms. He plants a kiss on my forehead and looks deep into my eyes. “I’m so grateful I’ll still be able to do this in Heaven, my love.”
Oh, so am I. And I continually ponder what else we will do in Heaven. I’m sure we will sing praise, but there are so many ways to praise, and I can’t wait to keep exploring them into eternity.
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