Imagine your first conversation with Jesus.
Where are you? Who starts the conversation? What is the first thing you say? You are not going to talk about the weather, are you?
While I generally follow the counsel of John Calvin, who recommends that we do not inquire into mysteries that are beyond human comprehension, I think we do have some basis for allowing our imaginations to run free on our first heavenly conversation.
This weekend the Church thinks about the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. (Mark 9:2-9) In this event two Jewish men who had died centuries earlier meet with Jesus on a mountain top. What we learn there gives our imaginations room to roam. We learn that Moses and Elijah are alive, that they are physically present, not appearing as ‘ghosts’ or as in a dream. No, they ‘appeared’. They could be seen. Their presence was real enough that Peter, somewhat foolishly, suggests putting up a tent for each of them.
They were recognizable and ‘knowable.’ That is, someone, presumably Jesus, knew them by sight and called them by name.
They could speak and be understood. They appear in person to speak with Jesus, presumably in Hebrew. There is no suggestion that they are afraid of speaking with the Son of God.
I sure don’t claim to know exactly what the next part of our existence will be like. But, from this event (and others in the Bible), I believe we will have real bodies which Jesus will recognize and know by name. We will speak in awe, but not in fear, and be understood. We will see, hear, and comprehend Jesus in all of his glory.
Imagine with joy your first heavenly conversation
with Jesus.
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