"For in the resurrection, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." Matthew 22:30
This verse used to bother me. It was hard to comprehend how my husband in this life would not be my husband in the next life. I pictured seeing him in heaven, waving and saying, "Hi," but feeling a disconnect. But not too long ago, the Lord gave me insight into this.
When we see the Lord face to face, we will instantly fall head over heels in love. His magnetism will be so intense, we will have eyes for no one but Him. Just like Peter and James and John, we will want nothing else than to follow Him and remain in His presence.
Can you imagine Peter's wife, wondering why Peter suddenly had little interest in her, and kept following after a man, leaving her for whole days and nights? What must she have been thinking?
I will want no other man. He will be my husband, and I will be His bride. That's why the church is called the "bride."
"And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I shall show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." Revelation 21:9
It will be the same for my husband. Christ is the great equalizer. My husband and I will look at each other in heaven and smile, and know that what we had here on earth was nothing compared to being married to the Lamb. We will still love each other, but we will be absolutely smitten by Him. Of course, our marriage to Christ will not be sexual, but rather one of pure love and relationship.
And because there is no marriage in heaven, we will not have cause to feel guilty when we fall instantly in love with that wonderful "Other Man."
We won't have to win His affections, either, because He is already wildly, lavishly, head-over-heels in love with us. When our eyes meet, we will melt, because His eyes will be shining with His perfect love. He, too, has waited expectantly for us to come to Him, to see each other, face to face.
We will not have to wait in a long meet-and-greet line in heaven, hoping just to get a glimpse of Him and shake His hand. Just as He has blessed us with His Spirit individually here on earth--moment to moment, every day of our lives--He will be with us in the same way, our individual Savior and Lord, and the Lover of our Souls.
It will be the perfect marriage... a marriage made in heaven.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Why I am Not Disappointed
This is my very first blog, my first shout into cyberspace, except for e-mail, of course. Hello, hello, hellloooooo... Will anyone read this? And if so, will they be "not disappointed"?
That actually isn't why I gave my blog its name. It comes from a verse in the Bible which touched me recently:
"In Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed." Psalm 22:5b
Have you ever read a verse in the Bible that, on the face of it, seemed pretty simple, but then, on second glance, was packed with meaning? This verse was that for me.
The Bible exhorts us to trust in God. Verse after verse calls us to cast our cares upon our Heavenly Father, and trust in Him. And that's all well and good until that trust is put to the test. Then, when that trust is all we have to cling to, like a rope dropped out of heaven, while everything around us is crumbling, we may begin to wonder, "What happens if I trust in this rope? How long will I have to hang here? Who's extending the rope and how strong is He? How can I be assured that He's someone who really cares about me and has my best interests in mind? Is that Someone really able to take complete care of me?"
That's why the second part of the verse above is so meaningful. "In Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed." Not disappointed. If you choose to grab onto God's rope, you may not be able to see where He's taking you. You may look down and see nothing but rubble and clouds of dust as your world falls to pieces. You may hang there for some time while God does His work behind the scenes, but you can absolutely KNOW that however it turns out: you will not be disappointed. If you trust in God, He will reward you by exceeding your expectations.
I know because I've been there. My trust in God was put to the test nearly two years ago when my 20-year-marriage ran into a brick wall. I never even saw it coming. It just seemed that all of a sudden, I had a bitter husband who became increasingly distant, like an astronaut who was floating away from me in space, his lifeline severed by...himself.
That's why I'm writing this blog, to talk about why I am Not Disappointed. Our marriage is still very rocky. I am actually typing this with one hand, while gripping onto God's rope with the other as I hang precariously over the rubble of our first twenty years.
I am not writing as one who has made it back into the land of happy endings. I am writing as one who is still in the midst of a troubled marriage, still dangling by God's lifeline, still trusting in Him who makes all things new.
This is not to say that God is not working in our marriage. The fact is, God has had to do enormous foundational work before He could even begin to reconstruct our marriage. That takes time, and as one with very little patience, I have often lost heart. During those times, I have repeated that verse over and over: "In Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed."
In future blogs, I will share about the things I've learned through these last two years, and how, time and again, God has revealed Himself through this process, and urged me to keep believing that if I trust in Him, I will not be disappointed.
That actually isn't why I gave my blog its name. It comes from a verse in the Bible which touched me recently:
"In Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed." Psalm 22:5b
Have you ever read a verse in the Bible that, on the face of it, seemed pretty simple, but then, on second glance, was packed with meaning? This verse was that for me.
The Bible exhorts us to trust in God. Verse after verse calls us to cast our cares upon our Heavenly Father, and trust in Him. And that's all well and good until that trust is put to the test. Then, when that trust is all we have to cling to, like a rope dropped out of heaven, while everything around us is crumbling, we may begin to wonder, "What happens if I trust in this rope? How long will I have to hang here? Who's extending the rope and how strong is He? How can I be assured that He's someone who really cares about me and has my best interests in mind? Is that Someone really able to take complete care of me?"
That's why the second part of the verse above is so meaningful. "In Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed." Not disappointed. If you choose to grab onto God's rope, you may not be able to see where He's taking you. You may look down and see nothing but rubble and clouds of dust as your world falls to pieces. You may hang there for some time while God does His work behind the scenes, but you can absolutely KNOW that however it turns out: you will not be disappointed. If you trust in God, He will reward you by exceeding your expectations.
I know because I've been there. My trust in God was put to the test nearly two years ago when my 20-year-marriage ran into a brick wall. I never even saw it coming. It just seemed that all of a sudden, I had a bitter husband who became increasingly distant, like an astronaut who was floating away from me in space, his lifeline severed by...himself.
That's why I'm writing this blog, to talk about why I am Not Disappointed. Our marriage is still very rocky. I am actually typing this with one hand, while gripping onto God's rope with the other as I hang precariously over the rubble of our first twenty years.
I am not writing as one who has made it back into the land of happy endings. I am writing as one who is still in the midst of a troubled marriage, still dangling by God's lifeline, still trusting in Him who makes all things new.
This is not to say that God is not working in our marriage. The fact is, God has had to do enormous foundational work before He could even begin to reconstruct our marriage. That takes time, and as one with very little patience, I have often lost heart. During those times, I have repeated that verse over and over: "In Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed."
In future blogs, I will share about the things I've learned through these last two years, and how, time and again, God has revealed Himself through this process, and urged me to keep believing that if I trust in Him, I will not be disappointed.
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