Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. 1 John 3:1-3 HCSB
One of my mom’s best friends from church was recently placed into a nursing home. I normally try to avoid hospitals and nursing homes, but for her sake, I have been trying to visit. I know that if my mom were well that she would want to go, so I guess I am also doing this for my mom. I avoid these places because it saddens me to see those in there who are forgotten. When my dad was in a long term acute care facility awaiting to be made strong enough for rehab I saw many of the elderly that never had visitors. It was as if they had been placed in these facilities and forgotten about.
It has caused me to think about myself as I age. Just a couple weeks ago, I gathered with two of my best friends from my school days. The three of us try to get together three times a year to celebrate each of our birthdays. I won’t give away any secrets and say how old we are, but we were talking the other night about how we have days where we feel as though we are falling apart.
Our former pastor used to ask us how we were at 33. Well, actually at the age of 33 I was in pretty good shape. I was healthy and had not yet begun to experience migraine headaches. The reason that our pastor asked us this is because of the verse in our scripture passage that says that “when he appears, we will be like him”. This has led biblical scholars to believe that we will appear as we were at the age of 30 or 33 when we get to heaven. Some just believe that we will be at our ideal age. At any rate, we know that we will have brand new bodies. We know that there will be no pain or sickness of any kind. I will never again have to worry about having a migraine! We won’t have to worry about germs and getting the flu. There will be no epidemics. We won’t have to get flu shots or pneumonia vaccinations.
The best news of all is that this lasts forever. It’s not like we will be at this ideal age where we are fit and healthy and start the aging process all over again. No indeed, we will stay fit and healthy and remain at this ideal age-forever! We will truly be forever young!
So we know that in heaven, we will no longer cry any tears, there will be no mourning (Revelation 21:4). We know that in heaven there are many dwelling places and that Jesus has prepared one just for us (John 14:2). We know that we will have strong healthy, fit bodies (1 John 3:2). What an awesome place, right? I have already got my ticket and I hope that you have yours too. You don’t have to stand in line overnight, you don’t have to spend a fortune, you just have to turn to God. You have to believe in Him. You have to confess your sins to Him and repent and ask Him to forgive you. Ask Him to fill you with his Holy Spirit to help you to stop sinning. Then you too can go to heaven and be forever young.
Have a great day!