but we will no longer have the questions
November 20, 2008 (Thursday)
My grandfather, Clinton S. Fake, known as “Clint,” died in 1944 at the age of 66. I am now 77, so I am 11 years older than my grandfather was when he passed away. My grandfather, John F. Lowe, known as “Forest,” died at 76, so I am one year older than he was. I’m 6 years older than my father, and in 10 months I will be the same age as my mother. You know, thinking about these kinds of things gets my mind in a jumble. It’s stuff like this that makes people ask, “Will we know each other in Heaven?”
Let me answer that question by saying that all of our questions about life after death are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Remember the first one you ever saw? Maybe you felt like I did. It was just a pile of funny looking pieces of cardboard. When the puzzle was completed later, however, it made perfect sense. I think that’s an illustration of how we are going to feel about all our questions when we get to Heaven. In fact, I fully expect every spiritual question I have now to disappear instantaneously when I see Jesus. I won’t ask them, because I will somehow just know.
Will we know each other in Heaven? Well, look with me at 1Thessalonians 4:13-18, which talks about that great day when Jesus comes and we rise to meet Him in the air. Why does Paul tell us about that? Because the Christians in Thessalonica were asking questions about it. They were wondering if they had seen the last of their loved ones who had died. This is Paul’s reply: “All Christians of all time will rise to meet the Lord together.” The key word is “together.” Paul was saying in effect to these people, “You will see your loved ones again on that great day.” It goes without saying they will know each other; that was the whole point.
Our knowledge, however, will be so superior to our present knowledge that there is no comparison. We will know, and understand completely, that everything has changed. Jesus said we will be like the angels, without marriage and all that it means in the here and now. Nothing will be hidden from us; we will know all, and we will rejoice in our perfect knowledge.
An old chorus puts it this way: “Everything’s all right in my Father’s House, where there’s joy, joy, joy!”
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1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NIV
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.