Several years ago my wife and I were walking with a bunch of friends enjoying the sights and sounds of a city putting on a festival. There was a very intelligent, deeply spiritual, but unattached woman in our group. Several weeks earlier she had questioned me about my belief that married partners could remain together for an eternity in heaven. She herself believed that a heavenly state consisted of an individual reaching a state of perfection – no matter how many lifetimes this would take. Her argument was, if one reached perfection, why would there be any need to find happiness through others?
As our party of friends continued strolling down the sidewalk, something quite unexpected and revealing happened. A horse drawn carriage passed by, and sitting in the back was a couple, obviously in love with each other. The unattached woman friend who was with us observed the romantic couple and sighed, saying, “I wish that could be me riding with someone I loved in that carriage.”
Huh?
In her heart she felt that her life would be more perfect with a loving, caring partner, but intellectually, her studies and acquired knowledge was completely disconnected from this inner feeling and the powerful human desire for intimacy.
A God of love would not create an eternal heaven for humankind that was destitute of human intimacy and friendship. Perfection of love is through reciprocation, so it cannot be a singular state. Furthermore, the fullness of love requires that we can continue to experience all the pleasures of being human, including marriage.
We do have soul mates and in heaven we are not limited in our expression of love for another. When we enter the spiritual world we find ALL our organic functions intact—with one big difference. While our terrestrial bodies consist of natural substances, our spiritual bodies consist of spiritual substances. There is nothing that a physical body can do that the spirit cannot do. After all, the corporeal body is designed to respond to all the desires of the spirit. Everything in the physical body corresponds to and has emerged from some function and quality of the spirit (the human form is essentially spiritual, since our humanness is derived from the psychical capacities of free will and discernment).
The spiritual body is an even a more perfect reflection of the spirit—for its features are not the outcome of genetic contributions from parents—but it is fashioned from the qualities of one’s heart and mind, In other words, our spiritual body has its bio-complexity and stature rooted in our life choices and whether or not we have followed God’s tenets. Having handsome or beautiful features in heaven is the direct result of possessing inner beauty. Spiritual intercourse in heaven does not lead to children but generates a new understanding and appreciation for God’s love and wisdom (spiritual births) whereby partners increase in their attractiveness. A women’s beauty in heaven can be so intense that it takes an equal amount of spiritual enlightenment in a man to be able to discern her features.
I know full well that there is a scriptural passage that implies there is no marriage in heaven, but this statement hides a deeper meaning that marriages in heaven will not be conducted in the same manner as those on earth—where one’s inner qualities can be hidden from others, and choices are made merely from worldly considerations.
Perfect partners are only those who are willing to grow closer together in spirit. Marital love, from a spiritual principle, is the ultimate expression of God’s creative principle in the universe. Angelic marital partners are the Lord God’s ultimate goal in creating a heavenly society from the human race.
Website: http://www.provinggod.com
