I will be honest, as a new widow the idea of there being no marriage in Heaven irked me… Hey, I’ve always been open and transparent, so there it is – my truth. Every time I read Luke 20:34-36 I swear I would get a twitch in my left eye! 😉 Have you ever read it? Here it is below:
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
It irked me, hit a nerve and because I never have hidden my feelings from God, I really needed to ask Him about it as I examined my own hurting heart.
PRAYER IS REALLY JUST CONVERSING WITH GOD.
People always make prayer more grandioso than it needs to be. They have made it so difficult that it is no wonder that people are intimidated by it. Listen, God doesn’t need you to be all pseudo sanctimonious with Him:
“Oh God, Thy this and Thou That!”
GOD WANTS YOU TO BE REAL! HE WANTS YOU TO JUST BE YOU!
Matthew 6:7 tells us:
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Honestly, I never understood why people would “hide” what they feel or what they think before the One Who as in Psalm 139:1-4 tells us that God “knows our thoughts BEFORE we even think them!” Take a look:
Lord, You have examined me and know all about me. You know when I sit down and when I get up. You know my thoughts before I think them. You know where I go and where I lie down. You know everything I do. Lord, even before I say a word, You already know it.
Hence, I never have seen the point in “hiding” from God. I always thought it was crazy for Adam and Eve to think they could hide from Him! I mean, REALLY??? God is omnipotent! God is all-knowing! So, whenever I struggle with something I read in the Bible, I ask Him for understanding, I ask Him to give me eyes to see Him, ears to hear Him and a heart to receive what it is He is teaching me. And THIS is what He revealed to me. This is how our conversation went:
“Kelly, why are you upset with the fact that there will be no human marriage in Heaven?”
“Father, I LOVE Johnny, I LOVED being his wife! I want to be his wife forever! I don’t care that our vows said, ’till death do us part’ I don’t want to stop being his wife!”
Romans 7:2 tells us:
For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
I could feel my Father smiling at me, amused (as He often is with me…) This is what He said:
“Kelly, long before I united Johnny with you, He belonged to me. He’s always been mine; I have always had my hand upon his life – even when he wasn’t aware of it. I loved him enough to bring you into his life and I love you enough to have brought him into yours. Why? Look at the case as it was with Adam, I knew that it was not good for him to be alone, he needed a helper, and such was the case for you and Johnny! You have “helped” each other in ways you never even have been aware of! (And even at this point, you are still discovering). But if you examine what I have revealed to you in the Book of Genesis, Eve did not come into Adam’s life before I did. Adam developed a relationship with me BEFORE I gave him Eve as his helpmate. Adam was ALWAYS mine FIRST.”
I nodded my head understanding God’s Words, but in being the “child” I am, I had to throw in a “but…”
“But Father, I WANT to continue BEING his wife!”
To which He said to me:
“Daughter of my heart, I KNOW you do! But where Johnny is now is WITH me. Heaven is not a place where “helpers” are needed. Johnny is now whole in ME, there is NO NEED of help where he is. For where he is I AM. As will be the case with you, when I call you home. Kelly, I am the God Who GIVES you the gift of love and the ability to love because I AM LOVE. You cannot FULLY understand this until you are where Johnny now is! Heaven is more than what your human mind can at this point fully comprehend and I have made it that way for a purpose! I know you don’t understand the fullness of these words, but I need you to continue trusting in ME. Continue believing that I have your best interests at heart! For I AM LOVE. And I GIVE love.”
I have to be honest with you, I have had to take time and chew on my Father’s Words to me, and this is what I am coming to understand – God has showed us love in EVERY possible way He can. We are talking about the God Who left the glories of Heaven to put on human flesh and meet us RIGHT here where we are at! Jesus was born of the virgin Mary; God incarnate lived a sinless life and died a most horrible death on the cross taking upon the sins of the world (your sins and mine) so that we would be redeemed to the Father by His sacrifice. He was crucified, died and rose from the dead defeating death and sin!
THIS IS GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU! THIS IS GOD’S LOVE FOR ME!
John 3:16 tells us:
“God so loved the world that He gave His ONLY begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall NOT perish but have everlasting life.”
Since that is the case, how can we NOT believe that this SAME God Who shows us love in SO many ways that we are presently unaware of, would hold back ANYTHING from us? The One Who would NOT even hold back His own Son???? The One Who died for YOU and for me????
I admit to you that I don’t have ALL the answers! But I’m NOT supposed to! What I DO know is that I BELONG to the One Who IS the answer! Things in Heaven are NOT going to be the same as here on earth. We are not to fully understand that because at this time we don’t need to, and I have to trust in the One Who “loaned” me my Johnny (and is the One Who loves me BEYOND anything I can imagine) that He knows best! Honestly, I think that Johnny and I will STILL love and be aware of what our relationship was while we are on earth – but how MUCH better a relationship will we have as we are with the One Who IS love???? How can we possibly believe that God who saw the need for Adam to be yoked with Eve won’t have something even BETTER for those of us Who love Him???? (Remember, Adam hadn’t even been aware of what his need was for Eve prior to God creating her!) Imagine that?! God has not changed in Who He is and in what He is able to do! We have NO idea what Heaven is like, but we CAN bet that it is SO much better than ANYTHING God has given us here on earth!
If you are a parent of a child, do you reveal ALL you know about life to a child who would not be able to fathom what you are telling them? No, of course not! You give them bits and pieces to the degree of what they are able to understand! Why would that not be the case more so with our Heavenly Father?
1 Corinthians 2:9 declares:
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him”
Revelations 21:4 says:
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Notice that it says, “The former things have passed away” but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have BETTER for us! And the mere fact that we will be reunited with the One Who has loved us in EVERY way we can imagine and quite frankly He has told us in Isaiah 55:8:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
How patient He is with us, how merciful, how graceful, how loving… How can we not trust that what He has in store for those of us who love Him is so MUCH better than what we can even comprehend? Isaiah 54:5 indicates the following:
For your Maker is your Husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth He is called.
God has never held back any good thing from us, we can trust Him. And so, I rejoice in God my Savior! My Father! King of Kings! LORD of Lords! The Alpha and the Omega! The great I AM! For He IS God, and I am His! Praise Him and thank Him for EVERY blessing He has brought into your life and will in the life to come, because we are His and He is ours, and love WILL last for ALL eternity – God IS love and God GIVES love and THAT is something that will NEVER change! \0/ \0/ \0/
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