Will Our Bodies Be Perfect In Heaven?

This past weekend my daughter asked if when she gets to heaven she will have two working eyes. I’ve been tossing that question around in my head ever since and the answer is I don’t know. (If you don’t know our story, she lost one eye to cancer at 6 months old)

The question implies that my daughter is broken and when I look at her I don’t see broken. Our scars tell our stories, they become a part of us and show both the world’s impact on our lives as well as our impact on the world.

[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]

We are quickly approaching her 9 year cancer free anniversary. While I never want her to have to relive, or to do so myself, the trauma of that time period I wouldn’t do away with what we’ve already been through. Her battle with cancer before she was even a year old shaped who she became in life. She is fascinated with science and with doctors. She sees the goodness in people no matter what their scarred bodies would have you believe. It has changed our whole family. We jump at the chance to help others, to raise money for organizations like St. Jude, and to see suffering not as something to be frightened of but a scar to be proud of.

Jesus did not hide His scars. When Jesus appeared to the apostles, following His resurrection, He showed them the nail scars in His hands and feet. There is a question that is always brought up when reading John 20:19-31. Jesus responds to Thomas’ doubt, ““Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” Is He chastising Thomas for wanting proof? I don’t think so. I mean after all this resurrection bit was unheard of. Thomas was a loyal follower of Christ. Just a few chapters earlier in John 11:16 he had encouraged all the disciples to follow Jesus to His death.

Doubt is essential to faith. It isn’t to be feared. It helps us dig deeper and ask the hard questions. I find freedom in loyal doubting Thomas, freedom to ask questions and receive answers. John 20 stands as a testimony to all those who will be hearing the story of Christ’s resurrection. John is saying look we know you have doubts but we saw this first hand, Christ even came back and answered Thomas’ doubts and when He did He said that you, who do not see but believe, are even more blessed then the 12 of us in His inner circle. It is not a chastisement of Thomas but rather a blessing on all those who come after.

So I encourage the questioning, I sit and wrestle with my doubt and my children’s acknowledging their questions and not giving easy Sunday School answers. I don’t know what heaven looks like. The Bible gives clues in metaphor and language I do not always understand. It is a beautiful mystery that those who have gone before us have already discovered and one we will also discover in time. Revelations 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” But does that mean this tired body will hold no clues to the life it lived here and now?

In Revelations 5 Jesus is referred to as appearing as the Lamb who had been slain. His scars stand as testimony throughout eternity to the cross endured and the triumph over death. Will our scars likewise stand as testimony to the beautiful stories God weaved throughout eternity?

Will our scars stand as testimony to the beautiful stories God weaved throughout eternity? Click To Tweet

I love that my daughter is exploring her faith. Her default is science. She loves to test, retest, and find definite answers. Sitting in wonder and being comfortable with the unexplainable is difficult for her. She wants answers. Right now her fascination lies with heaven. We are learning to sit quietly in the unknown with questions that do not yet have answers. She’s still struggling with her grief, trying to wrap her mind around the loss of friends and her own survival of cancer. On Sundays she is exploring the Bible through Godly Play, a montessori styled curriculum that teaches the children to sit comfortably with the mystery of God.

Psalm 118 speaks of discipline, of a hard life, of war and triumph. The author was not unscarred by the world and yet he still sang, “This is the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it (vs 23-24).”