She Won't Be Jealous

I woke up the other morning earlier this week and as I laid in bed on my side with my eyes open, I felt an intense love gradually invade my body, as if it were hovering above my body only moments earlier waiting for me to arouse from my sleep. I closed my eyes again, welcoming his love, and sharing some of my thoughts with him with each of my heartbeat. It’s not often that I experience God so tenderly (or seductively, I must say) whilst in bed but when it does happen, I am deeply grateful. It was a very private moment and I had reservations about whether to include it in this post. But bear with me while I tease it out a bit. Now, just think of the last time you were around someone you loved deeply, be it a partner, spouse, family member or even a close mate - someone whom you feel deeply connected with - and let me just qualify that I don’t necessarily mean love in the erotic sense! Hopefully that will help you relate to the experience I just shared earlier.

This morning, I woke up again (obviously) and I read about this person’s story in a Christian devotional material. It was about his wife passing away and then him later remarrying his best friend’s widow. He was a lecturer at a Bible college and one of his students came up to him and asked him if he thought his first wife would know about his second marriage to another woman and what his wife’s reactions would be when they eventually met up again in heaven. The professor smiled and said, “Of course she will, and because she will be perfect, she will not be jealous. Even though we will not live as marriage partners, I believe we will know each other. We will all be the best of friends forever.”

In Mark 12, we read about the account of Jesus who had to deal with some of the religious leaders who wanted to trap him and so made up a story about a woman whose husband had died and left no son. According to Jewish law, they said, the deceased’s brother would have to marry the widow and have children for his brother (Mark 12:19). But the problem was each of the seven brothers of this woman’s first husband also died successively after marrying her. The question they then posed to Jesus was: Whose wife would she be when they’re all together before God one day since she was married to all of them?

Jesus then answered them, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry or be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” (Mark 12:24-25) Now, I particularly like the way The Message paraphrases the last bit of the same verse – “As it is with angels now, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.” In other words, Jesus was saying that these religious leaders neither understood the Scriptures nor God’s power to raise the dead to a glorious new existence without marriage.

I get excited when I think of the new way we will be one day when we are before God. We will be perfect and will have feelings of being intimately connected with one another without the crap that sometimes affects the way we relate to other people now. We will love perfectly and enjoy complete healing from all the insecurities, hurts and fears of our earthly relationships. And it’s no wonder marriage will be rendered ‘unnecessary’ when one day when we’re in the presence of God because all things will be made whole through him.

Don’t get me wrong, though, I’m not advocating an easy form of escapism through Christianity. But I think it’s just a case of God saying to me, “If you think your relationships now on earth are good and wonderful (or bad for some of us), think again. It will blow your mind when you realise what you’re in for one day when your life here on earth finally ceases. All your tears will be wiped away and then, what an eternity of orgasmic (I was going to write ‘orgiastic’ but then I looked up my Macquarie Dictionary and found out that it had a very different meaning to what I intended, so it’s ‘orgasmic’ not ‘orgiastic’), deep and intimate communion with all your loved ones and with me, your Creator, will that be?!”

Now, that was one hell of a morning I woke up to today.