Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 22

THE BANQUET HALL
“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”
—Revelation 19:9

How would you imagine a banquet in Heaven? One artist (whose poster we keep on our refrigerator) painted a long, lavishly appointed banquet table on what appeared to be a beach, the chairs stretching far into the sunset horizon. The plates resembled the circular stained glass windows of a grand cathedral. Exquisite gold flatware and etched crystal completed each place setting. Candles sat on pooled linens. When published, the photo’s caption was simply Jesus’ invitation in the parable of The Great Banquet: “Come, for all things are now ready.” (1)

But this painting showed no guests, unlike Jesus’ parable in Matthew 22, which told of a king wanting to honor his son with a big banquet. One by one, the invited guests turned down the invitation. One said he had to check out a field he had just bought. Another was trying out his oxen. A third just got married. To put these excuses in today’s settings, one put the love of material things ahead of the king’s invitation. The second put his job or business ahead of the king’s call. The third put family ties and social relationships before his allegiance to his king. Angered by their snubs, the king ordered the servant to go to the city’s streets and alleys and bring in the poor, crippled, blind and lame plus any others along the country lanes. Thus, common folk feasted and enjoyed the king’s party. Those least expected to come to a king’s feast were there because they responded to His invitation.

In Heaven’s banquet hall, the people who were too busy or preoccupied for God will miss out. But even paupers will be there if they believed in Jesus. Our Lord remarked, “Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 8:11, also Luke 13:29). Imagine! Passing the rolls to famous people of the Bible who lived thousands of years ago, or somebody from halfway around the world! And speaking of rolls, what will be served at such a banquet? Could God come up with a menu that eclipses the finest restaurant on earth? Of course. Will we finally understand how Jesus is “The Bread of Life” (John 6:35) and how we will never go hungry because we believe in Him? Will there be something like the manna, the Heaven-sent food that sustained the Hebrews in the wilderness? If so, the Host will most certainly be glad to tell us how He did it! Or will we feast on something else, maybe soul food (and I don’t mean Southern cookin’)? David wrote that an encounter with God’s power and glory was as satisfying to his soul as “the richest of food” (Psalm 63:5).

On the other hand, will we eat in Heaven? One answer: why not? In His resurrection body, Jesus ate fish and bread before ascending to Heaven. He even cooked the fish over a fire on the beach! Will we need to eat? We don’t know, because we don’t know how our resurrection bodies will work. There will be no more death and decay, so the normal processes of digestion that we know on earth may not be necessary. What will mark table conversation? Will it be the next playoff game or clothing sale or grandkid antics? Hardly. Perhaps it will be wonder that we are actually sitting at Heaven’s wedding feast, actually a member of God’s kingdom (Col. 1:13) and possessing every possible spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3). What about the cooks and servers? Will they be angels? Or will God give us the joy of serving one another as well as Himself? Remembering Jesus’ example of washing feet (John 13), I favor helping serve.

And don’t forget about the guest of honor, Christ, the Bridegroom. In contrast to earthly bridegrooms, eager for the honeymoon to start, this Bridegroom cares deeply about each guest. We’ll have quality time with Him as well as with guests from all of history. Don’t try to figure out how this will happen. It will. It’s Heaven.

There’s an old sermon illustration about the elderly saint who told her family that she wanted to be buried with a Bible in one hand and a fork in the other. She explained, “All these years I’ve gone to church potlucks and when they’re almost over, somebody says, ‘Keep your fork.’ That meant the dessert was ready. The best was yet to come.”

Is your appetite whetted for Heaven’s grand wedding feast? Got your fork ready? The best is yet to come!

Prayer: Lord, I like that phrase, “The best is yet to come.” I’m saving my fork! Amen.

(1) Now out of print, the 1967 art by Bud Meyer depicting Luke 14:17 can be seen online at http://christcenteredmall.com/stores/art/anonymous/the-feast.htm

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 21

PORTRAIT GALLERY
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” –Hebrews 12:1

Most of us like to display family photos on a shelf or our home’s walls. But for a real “portrait gallery,” we need to go back a few hundred years to the palatial manors of aristocrats. They had entire halls lined with larger-than-life formal portraits of family members. In England in the 1700s, many such portraits came from the brushes of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was especially skilled at making unattractive clients look good, despite the grotesque hats, bonnets, and wigs they wore for sittings. Asked how he endured painting such ugliness, he replied, “They all have light and shadow.”

There’s also “light and shadow” in the Bible’s portrait hall, located in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Instead of paints, sin and redemption provide the contrasts of dark and light. Abel is there for his “better sacrifice,” Enoch for pleasing God, Noah for ark-building, and Abraham for trusting God in many moves and for a miracle son. Then come the Jewish patriarchs; Moses, chosen to lead the Exodus; the prostitute Rahab, who in faith hid the Israelite spies; and various judges and kings.The list ends with unnamed people who endured homelessness and cruel methods of persecution, torture, and execution. That left many with bodies we’d consider ugly. But God saw them as beautiful. He honored them by saying “the world was not worthy of them” (Heb. 11:38).

A few verses later, these devout and persecuted believers are called a “great cloud of witnesses” surrounding us (Heb. 12:1). The next verses urge us to live for Christ with the same focus as runners in a race. Some have taken this passage to mean that the “cloud of witnesses” (deceased believers) occupy a celestial grandstand, from which they cheer those on earth still running life’s race. That interpretation prompts some people to say, “Dad’s looking down on me from Heaven,” or “I think Grandma knows that I turned out okay.” But there is no Biblical evidence that saints in Heaven see our ongoing lives on earth. We can only be sure of this: “There is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7). When people turn to God, that news gets through to Heaven.

Instead, the “cloud of witnesses” represents those whose faith and endurance set for us a high standard for living. We have their biographies and testimonies as inspiration to keep running the race. And we’re reminded who inspired them: “Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus voluntarily put aside His original glory as God’s Son, lived simply on earth to teach people about God, and submitted to an excruciating death—all in the eternal plan of God the Father. Because of that, someday we will be able to mingle with the vast Heavenly “great cloud of witnesses.”

Who knows what famous and unknown people you’ll see in Heaven? Aristocracy will mean nothing in Heaven. Heaven is based on holiness, not wealth. If they believed in Jesus, the professor will be there by the pauper, the legless beggar by the legislator, the historical figure by the housekeeper. Earth’s methods of preserving human likeness—line drawings, grand portraits, photographs—won’t be necessary. If we didn’t know them before, we’ll get to know them in Heaven.

A local newspaper gave front-page coverage to the funeral service for a community leader and vibrant Christian who died in an auto accident. The photo with the story showed her husband standing before a large photo of her, his hands raised in praise as the mourners sang a Gospel chorus affirming her faith in Jesus Christ. “Farewell to a faithful friend,” said the headline. But the rest of the story is this: someday there will be “Hello to a faithful friend.” In time, her Christ-believing friends (including those she led to faith in Christ) will join her in the halls of Heaven. She will no longer be a memory or a photo, but eternally alive. And that’s just a start. The grand halls of Heaven won’t have portraits, but this: “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” plus all those “whose names are written in Heaven” (Heb. 12:22-23a). Imagine the size of it!

Even more, imagine the vibrancy in their countenances that even the best artist or photographer on earth couldn’t convey. There will be more than “light and shadow.” The joy of Heaven will dance off their faces, reflecting their thrill of roaming Heaven’s halls and of seeing God, the greatest Artist of all.

Prayer: Almighty God, I look forward to meeting the wonderful people in your Heavenly portrait gallery. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 20

LIGHTS
“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its light.” –Revelation 21:23

If the sun suddenly stopped shining, scientists predict life on earth would cease in about eight minutes. Yet the Bible says Heaven’s holy city will need neither the sun nor the sun-reflecting moon. This leads us to believe it won’t need energy sources, like hydroelectric dams, solar panels, steam, coal, or nuclear plants. We may not need ceiling lights, track lighting, table and desk lamps, porch lights, street lights, search lights, flashlights, tiki torches, or camping lanterns.

Instead, said John in his vision of Heaven, there will be the dazzling glory of God the Father and God the Son (Rev. 21:23). The Old Testament prophet Isaiah predicted it: “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory”(Isaiah 60:19). At the very beginning of time, God said, “Let there be light”(Gen. 1:3). He set in place our sun and untold millions of other stars. In eternity, He will be the light.

The Bible associates God with “light” more than two hundred times. Think of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God on top of Mount Sinai. When Moses came back from the blazing light of God’s presence, his own face shone so brightly that he had to veil it in public (Exodus 34:29-34). God also lent His light to a huge cloud to guide the Israelites day and night through the wilderness en route to Canaan. Later, this became the glowing “shekinah glory” over the sacred Ark of the Covenant in the Jerusalem temple. David declared, “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1). Another psalm calls God “the light of life” (Psalm 56:13).

Daniel had a vision of “The Ancient of Days” with clothing “as white as snow” and hair “white like wool,” sitting on a “throne…flaming with fire” (Dan. 7:9). God arranged for a Heavenly light to herald Jesus’ birth. Toward the end of Jesus’ ministry, He took his closest disciples to a high mountain where He was transfigured into a Being of light: “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” as He talked with two men in “glorious splendor,” identified as long-dead Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:29-35). At Jesus’ death, there was no light. Even at mid-day, the skies grew as dark as night (Mark 15:33). Gospel-writer Luke said, “The sun stopped shining” (Luke 23:45).

The apostle John interchangeably used the terms “life” and “light” for Jesus (John 1:4-5). “God is light,” John wrote, “in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). After Christ returned to Heaven, a Pharisee named Saul went on a rampage against Christians. En route to Damascus, Saul was blinded by an intense light from Heaven. Jesus spoke through it, and Saul (who became Paul) was converted on the spot (Acts 9:3). In the apostle John’s vision of Heaven, he saw lamp stands whose illumination paled next to someone whose “face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev. 1:17), much like the day John saw Christ transfigured on earth. The book of Revelation shimmers with mysteries about God as His people’s light forever. “They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun,” says its concluding chapter, “for the Lord God will give them light” (Rev. 22:5).

God, who lives what the Bible calls “unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16), is purity and holiness in unfathomable intensity. We won’t need dark glasses or to seek shelter from it. It will seem right for it will be home. It will be all we longed for as we suffered in the dark days of earth. World War 2 was one such time of intense darkness and discouragement. Seeking to encourage his nation to persevere against the Nazis, King George VI of Britain delivered a memorable address that included this profound quote from an obscure London lecturer: I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he said to me, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way. (1)

God still bids us take His hand, for He is better than any light we now know. He is safer than any other way as He leads us through death to the place of everlasting light.

Prayer: Dear God of glory and light, some of my days feel dark in my soul. Thank you for the promise that You are the Light that will never be extinguished. Amen.

(1) Quoted by Hudson T. Armerding in “The Hand of God,” Wheaton Magazine (Winter 2005), p. 59.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 19

DÉCOR
“The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.” –Revelation 21:19

Popular artwork about Heaven often portrays it as white-robed beings floating among fluffy white clouds. As though God’s creativity ended with vanilla! The truth is that the Bible speaks of Heaven as a place of brilliant color. Descriptions of the New Jerusalem—God’s specially-made Heavenly city—nearly explode with extravagant color. The old apostle John, accustomed to gray rocks of his island prison, grabbed gemstone names to try to describe the colors he saw in his vision of Heaven.

When his vision took him to God’s Throne Room, he said the One sitting there “had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne” (Rev. 4:3). Scholars still puzzle about “jasper,” but think it was green or yellow. Carnelians (sardine) are deep red. Emeralds are a rich, pure green. The Heavenly city’s foundations are decorated with precious stones: jasper (greenish or yellow), sapphire (azure), chalcedony (unknown, perhaps green and blue), emerald (green), sardonyx (red and white), sardius (red), carnelian (red), chrysolite (yellow), beryl (sea-green), topaz (yellow), chrysoprase (golden green), jacinth (violet), and amethyst (rose-red). Not to forget gates of pearl and streets of transparent gold (Rev. 21:18-21). Every hue of the rainbow is there.

John’s vision doesn’t necessarily mean that Heaven is actually studded with precious stones. Yes, God could reach into earth’s grimy mines and dig out precious stones, then cut and polish them, and finally mount them on Heaven’s city. He could also simply create new gems to make His Heavenly home beautiful beyond description. Or, without using gemstones, He could make Heaven a never-ending rainbow.

Even earthly rainbows draw our hearts inexplicably upward. A storm rushes through, the sun glistens through the racing clouds, and we look in the sky for that colored arch from refracted light. Always, the underside is purple, then come indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Sometimes there are two rainbows.

For thousands of years, that transitory arch has reminded us of God’s faithfulness. He chose a man of the soil and of faith to preach about purity amidst moral blackness. From the unlikely pulpit of an enormous boat construction project, Noah urged repentance for 120 years. Then the skies blackened, boiling with furious storms until the entire earth flooded. Its living colors were destroyed. For over a year, Noah floated in a dim and stinky zoo. When the waters receded enough for land to emerge, and for Noah to make a fresh start, God sent color. The rainbow. And with it, His promise to never again flood the earth (Gen. 9:12-17).

What else, but colors pulled from the millions of hues embedded in rainbows, would do for Heaven? Heaven will be so full of delicious, delightful, and desirous colors that no artist’s palette could hold even a tiny fraction of them. If the colors of Heaven were printed on the color cards of a paint store, they’d fill the world—and more. If Heaven had a box of crayons, we’d be naming the colors for millennia.

Artists understand the amazing world of color. Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic and mouth artist, called her much-acclaimed efforts only feeble attempts to mirror what she sees. “I imitate with a gray pencil,” she said, “what God has painted with an infinite array of colors. My drawings, bounded by the edges of a sketch pad, can never fully portray God’s boundless nature above, beneath, and around us.” (1)

Heaven’s not a gauze of clouds or a mist machine set on high. It is exploding colors in unimaginable brilliance. One man who believes he had a vision of Heaven during his ninety minutes of being “dead” reported sensing a “bright iridescence.”(2) Something “iridescent” is constantly changing colors. The light breaks in countless hues—reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, indigos, violets—dancing and sparkling and almost putting senses on overload. Will all these colors mean a confused circus of Heavenly décor? Not at all. God has always been a God of order. But He’s also a God of creativity.

If the walls of your earthly home are nondescript ivory or tan, hang on. Could God, who knows the colors you truly love, be planning periwinkle for your special place? Or hydrangea? Or even daffodil, alpine lake blue, or the neon green of a jungle frog? Will the rainbow stripe the walls of your Heavenly place? Remember, to see a rainbow, we always look up in hope. Whatever the décor, it will be beautiful. After all, God designed it!

Prayer: Creator God, when I stop to think that You created colors that delight the eye, my vision of Heaven really brightens up! Amen.

(1) Joni Eareckson and Steve Estes, A Step Further (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), pp. 176-77.
(2) Don Piper with Cecil Murphey, 90 Minutes in Heaven (Grand Rapids: Revell, 2004), p. 33.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 18

DRESSING ROOM
“As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.” –Isaiah 62:5b

Some call it “the most important room in the house,” referring to one with a tub or shower, sink and toilet. But will there be bathrooms in Heaven? In our new bodies, will we need a place to wash and take care of body functions? Will God allow nice, long soaks in a tub? We don’t know. But if we expand the idea of “bathroom” to the greater role of a “room of preparation,” we may come closer to a Heavenly equivalent. Think of the room that many larger churches set apart for a bride and her attendants to dress for the wedding ceremony. Many are tastefully decorated with couches and mirrors to honor this very special occasion.

Some people may insist her dressing room is a boudoir, meaning “private dressing room or sitting room.” However, this French word, loaned to our English language, literally means “a place to sulk.” Perhaps in earlier times it described young ladies who were less than thrilled with the men seeking their affections. But when it’s a private dressing room for a wedding, the bride can hardly wait to exchange vows and rings with her beloved. You can be sure that the bride will spend extra time dressing and preparing her hair and makeup. This is her day! She is getting married to a wonderful man who has captured her heart. The clock ticks down, and soon she’s at the doors entering the church. She wears the most beautiful dress she has ever owned of glistening white satin and lace. Her veil is like a halo around her face. Her eyes gleam in anticipation. The soft prelude music crescendos to a royal processional, and she enters, her focus on her waiting bridegroom.

Heaven’s dressing room won’t be a “place to sulk” either. Who would pout and complain when you will be joined to the perfect Bridegroom, the One who laid down His life for you! No matter our gender, male or female, as believers we are the bride. That is why, though it may seem an odd connection, but when a person dies, a wedding’s ahead.

At age 78, Louise was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Told she had just a few months to live, she wrote “final letters” to her children and grandchildren. She also got busy planning her own funeral. After her death, she wanted to be cremated in a dress she wore to a recent family wedding. She wanted two memorial services, one at her home church and another at the church where she was married. She listed what she wanted said and sung. She also planned a “reception” (not a “funeral dinner”) after her memorial and told what she wanted served there. Her family had to have this feast catered! “She wasn’t planning a funeral,” her son John said. “She was having a wedding celebration.” Her last words included “Jay,” the name of her late husband. We can only guess her first words in Heaven. Could they have been “Jesus”? Her eternal Bridegroom had called her.

The apostle John captured that in this vision of Heaven: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The “new Jerusalem” is God’s chosen--believers. We are the bride! Let that sink in, and then put it in the context of a story told in a famous old devotional book, Streams in the Desert. An accident blinded a ten-year-old boy from a well-to-do family. Despite his handicap, he graduated with university honors. He also won the love of a young woman, even though he had never seen her, only felt her face. Shortly before their marriage, he underwent treatments that doctors said might restore his vision. He came to the church on his wedding day with his eyes swathed in bandages. Distinguished guests packed the church as he, his father, and a doctor moved to the front for the bride’s procession. As the bride came near, a doctor cut away the last bandage on his eyes. The bridegroom blinked in astonishment over seeing his bride, then walked toward her with extraordinary joy over her beauty. (1)

In Heaven’s wedding, the Groom, Jesus Christ, sees just fine. The bride (the church, including us) comes blinded by earth’s troubles and trials. When death removes the bandages, we will see our Groom face to face. Oh, the joy of that day! Start the wedding march!

Prayer: “The Bride of Christ”—I can hardly wrap my mind around that symbol, but it’s so wonderful. Thank you for loving me so completely, Jesus. Amen.

(1) Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, compiler, Streams in the Desert, entry for March 27 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1925, 1953, 1965).

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 17

THE NURSERY
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”—Matthew 19:14

It’s hard to walk among cemetery grave markers for babies and small children. Parents dream big with each pregnancy and birth. When a little life is cut short, we have many questions. Why did this little one have to die? Why is the pain so deep? Will I recognize them in heaven? Some people wonder if babies and children become little angels in heaven, something like the chunky, rose-cheeked “cherubs” on Valentine’s Day cards. But that’s not a teaching of the Bible. Yes, God created angels, but for special sacred jobs in heaven. Babies are not pre-angels.

But God does use little ones to draw us to greater awe of His creative power. You’ve probably watched a little hand curl around your finger, and marveled how this life started mere months earlier as an egg and sperm. Children teach us about our weaknesses and need for God’s help as we struggle to care for them and train them.

Make no mistake: God loves children in a very special way. We see that in how Jesus reacted with children. One of the most poignant scenes of His earthly ministry involved the common people bringing their children to Him for blessing. Jesus’ disciples tried to stop the crush of parents, but Jesus urged them not to interfere. “Let the little children come to me,” He said. Stop and think about that. He wanted them to come! These weren’t influential people or religious leaders—just children. Yet about them, He added, “Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matt. 9:14). Envision Jesus nuzzling a newborn and touching its cheek to encourage a smile. Stroking the downy head of an older baby, transfixed by His eyes. Hugging a toddler to His chest as He spoke quietly of His Father’s love. Scooping older siblings to His side, maybe laughing with them.

Earlier, His disciples had asked who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. No doubt they hoped to know who was His favorite follower. Instead, he called a little child out of the crowd. “Unless you change and become like little children,” He said, “you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). After commending child-like faith, He revealed something else: “For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:11). Children are so special to God that they have assigned angels!

This side of heaven, we’ll never understand fully why children die. Some people worry that babies and children, who never got a chance to understand truths of salvation, will be left out of heaven. But the Bible says God is merciful and knows those who are His (2 Tim. 1:19). The Judge of all the earth will do right (Gen. 18:25). Like a shepherd who went to great pains to find his lost sheep, Jesus said God the Father “is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” (Matt. 18:14). So, expect to see the children, including those who died before birth. Will they “grow up” in heaven? The Bible is silent on that, but we’re assured that in heaven we’ll recognize one another.

Ely Swanson, a mechanic and inventor, believed that. His son Norm says his father often told this story as an encouragement about heaven. The second of seven children, Ely was in his seventies when his sister Lillian, a retired missionary, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. A few weeks before she died, Ely had a vivid dream. In recounting the dream to family members, Ely said he couldn’t find words to describe what he saw, and thought it must have been heaven. Some sort of being guided him around this place where he saw four family members, all appearing to be in their early twenties. These included his godly father and mother, plus his brother Philip. Philip had rejected his Christian upbringing from an early age and lived a difficult life, but became a Christian at a Billy Graham crusade shortly before his death. Ely also thought he saw his sister Lillian, but because Lillian had not yet died, he was confused and asked why she was here. The guide in his dream responded, “That is not Lillian. It’s Marie.” Ely had forgotten his parents had a baby girl, Marie, who lived only four hours.

A life too short for heaven? Not at all. The song is right. Jesus loves the little children….they are precious in His sight.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the assurance that Heaven will include the little ones who died so young. Amen.

Heaven: The Greatest Home Makeover--Day 16

THE BEDROOM
“They will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.” –Revelation 14:13

“He has entered into rest.” “She is at rest.” Those phrases bring comfort to those who watched a loved one suffer on the way to death. They also raise a question. In heaven, will we have a place to rest, like a bedroom?

To get an answer, we need to examine how people in Bible-times used “sleep” when they really meant “death.” The best-known example is the death of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend. Lazarus was desperately ill when his sisters sent for Jesus, hoping He would heal their brother. While Jesus was on the way there, Lazarus died anyway. Though Jesus’ followers didn’t know that, Jesus did. “He’s asleep,” Jesus told them. Their response was basically this: “Sleep’s good. He should get well now.” Then Jesus corrected them, saying plainly, “Lazarus has died” (John 11:11-14).

It’s true that a person who has died may appear to be asleep. But he doesn’t breathe and his heart doesn’t beat. The earthly body has quit working. It’s “at rest” from the task of living, and has started to decay. The Old Testament’s Job said of death, “There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest” (Job 3:17). Or as the prophet Isaiah wrote, “Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (Isaiah 57:2).

But the spirits of the dead don’t sleep. The Bible says a person’s spirit leaves the body to go to the presence of God—“away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Eventually, when Christ returns to earth, our spirits will be re-joined to our old bodies, reconstructed into heaven-ready “glorified” bodies. Our new bodies won’t become exhausted or fatigued.” Our “labor” in heaven will be refreshing and productive, like Adam and Eve’s in Eden before sin banned them from God’s perfect environment. Our “rest” will be a rest from “want.” We’ll lack nothing. We’ll be fully satisfied.

For Kyle, that rest was a long time coming. In his eighties, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and lung cancer, he had to be moved out of his large bed at home to a narrow hospital bed. One night as his wife Shirley was getting ready to leave, he asked, “Why don’t you spend the night with me? I know the bed is narrow, but we could manage.” Shirley responded, “I don’t think the nursing home would approve.” “What kind of a dumb rule is that?” he complained. A month later he didn’t need a bed any more. On Christmas Day, he “entered into rest.”

Thought of earthly bedrooms raises another issue. In heaven, will there be a “marriage bed”? In Jesus’ time, that was a hot question. Sadducees (who didn’t believe in the resurrection—no wonder their name started with “sad”!) tried to trick him by setting up a what-if situation. Their reasoning went like this: Suppose a woman’s husband dies, leaving her childless. Moses’ law says she needs to marry his brother to keep the family line going and inheritance safe. So she marries him, and he dies. One at a time, she marries the rest of his brothers and they die. Eventually, she’s gone through seven husbands. Who gets her as his wife in heaven?

Jesus answered them that on earth, marriage is a major preoccupation. In heaven, people will “neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels” (Luke 20:35-36). It doesn’t say we become angels (they’re separately-created beings), but we’ll be like them in the sense of no longer desiring to pair off in marriage. We won’t be “neutered” or sexless. We’ll still retain our essence of female or male, part of God’s amazing plan in designing humanity. But we won’t need marital relations that result in bearing children. So, no marriage bed. No need for mood-enhancing candles or locked doors. For those who never married, no pressure to “find the right one.” Jesus is the right one. With Him will be all ecstasies and intimacies.

Will we see a dearly-loved husband or wife who went to heaven? Why not? After Jesus’ resurrection, His followers recognized him. Scottish author George MacDonald quipped: “Will we be greater fools there than here?” (1) The joy of reunion is part of the joy of heaven.

If your earthly bed is a place of pain and sorrow, remember that will be forgotten in Heaven. If it is a lonesome place, be assured that God is ready to wrap you up completely in the comforter called Divine Love.

Prayer: Dear God, knowing there’s no weariness or loneliness in Heaven helps me look forward to being Home there. Amen.

(1) MacDonald quoted in Peter Kreeft, “What Will Heaven Be Like?”, Christianity Today, accessed at http;//ctlibrary.com/print.html?idi=7409 on June 27, 2006.