From the Chaplain

Last fortnight I wrote about some of the questions I had from the Year Seven Bible group. I’m going to write about two more questions that they asked and try and answer them through scripture and study I have done.   

Will we be sad ever again? 

Revelation 21:4 tells us, ‘God 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.’ This verse answers the question of whether we will be sad again in heaven.   

We also spoke about Psalm 56:8, ‘You keep track of all my sorrows.  You have collected all my tears in your bottle.  You have recorded each one in your book.’  The Year Sevens thought this was a funny verse, ‘what is he going to do with all my tears, pour them on me when I get there?  I wonder how big it will be?’  I explained that it might just be symbolic, but it is reminding us that God knows when we are sad and cares enough to count or add up your tears. It might feel like God is far away when we are sad, but this verse shows us that he is right there with us, cares about each tear we shed and will wipe them all away when we are in heaven. 

Can we fly?  

Some people think that we turn into angels when we die, but Christians believe we get a new spiritual, human-like body, not an angelic, winged body.  We see in scripture after Jesus’ resurrection that Jesus was able to appear and vanish right before people.  He also ascended back to heaven, without ‘flying’.   

Philippians 3:21 says, ‘When he [Jesus] comes back, he will take these dying bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own.’  This verse explains that we will get a body like Jesus and be able to do the things that Jesus did before he went back to be with the Father. Jesus walked, talked, recognised people, ate, had a physical body (but a new glorious one that people did not immediately recognise) and he moved around without flying.

Mrs Naomi Cooper | Chaplain