Airports and Heaven
As we crossed the road from the airport Arrivals Lounge to the car park where a guest from Germany was picking up a car, I absorbed the atmosphere and watched people.
The place was humming with activity, even on a Sunday evening. People criss-crossed paths--all on their way "somewhere." A few were alone, but many were being escorted to waiting cars by relatives or friends who had come there to pick them up.
I found myself thinking of Bill. He'd arrived safely in heaven--we all knew that--but I wondered what it was like for him to arrive there. How I would have loved to see his reunion with the mother he missed so deeply. No more sad Mother's Days for Bill.
Then I wondered--would he lose his disability in heaven? I know people who see it both ways. Some people think that the effects of this fallen world will be shed like a chrysalis--and that disability is one of those effects.
Others find that thought insulting and believe that disability is just as intrinsic to personhood as any other quality. I didn't know which camp I was in. So I Googled the question and found an interesting blog by a young man, a very good writer, in the States, who wrote about this very topic.
"sin and suffering and death will be no more. our relationships with ourselves and with each other will be right. so all the stigmas and misunderstandings surrounding "disability" will disappear. the marginalization and manipulation, as well as insecurity and loneliness faced by many people with disabilities will be replaced with a complete humanity, maybe not because their "disability" had been removed, but rather due to their membership in the blessed community where everyone is complete, fully known, perfectly loved, and perfectly able to love."
I love that. Heaven is still a wonderful mystery, but I'm looking forward to finding out the answers first hand one day. I have so many friends there already. I look forward to "knowing fully" however that is accomplished.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (New International Version)
12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
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