The Best is Yet to Come

On November 18th, Gina and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. Like birthdays and New Years, anniversaries offer a time to reflect on a variety of things. One thing that both of us have been pondering is how much greater our love is now than it was 13 years ago. Oh, we were in love then, but the love is more pervasive now…more encompassing…more tangible…more real.

And so you can understand my initial disappointment when reading Matthew 22:30:

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

I quite enjoy my relationship with my wife…and we’re still depraved sinners. I could get very excited thinking of our marriage in the absence of sin, or signs of aging, or diminishing cisterns of energy. Marriage in heaven would be incredible! But, according to Matthew (and Mark and Luke), Jesus disagrees.

I’m comforted that the scholar who penned the ESV Study Bible notes for the Gospel According to Matthew understands my plight.

This teaching might at first seem discouraging to married couples who are deeply in love with each other in this life, but surely people will know their loved ones in heaven (cf. 8:11; Luke 9:30, 33), and the joy and love of close relationships in heaven will be more rather than less than it is here on earth. Jesus' reference to “the power of God” suggests that God is able to establish relationships of even deeper friendship, joy, and love in the life to come. God has not revealed anything more about this, though Scripture indicates that the eternal glories awaiting the redeemed will be more splendid than anyone can begin to ask or think (cf. 1 Cor. 2:9; Eph. 3:20).

This causes me to stop and listen to what I’m actually saying. I’m saying that a discovery about Heaven disappoints me. That somehow, from my very limited, very temporal, very sin-stained perspective, what we have now will be superior to what God has for us in eternity.

And then it hits me. Not only is my thinking of the joys of Heaven limited, but my thinking about marriage is limited, too. The very thing that marriage is meant to depict will be a fully-realized reality in Heaven. My entire relationship with Gina, and yours with your spouse, will be fulfilled. And, once fulfilled, God has something even better in mind for the redeemed. What that could be is very hard for me to imagine as what He has currently given is so incredible.

In the end, I’m reminded of another truth that humbles me. I am often very guilty of thinking too small. My eyes can focus on the now, especially when the now is either really bad…or really good.

John Piper nails it in his new book, This Momentary Marriage, when he says:

There never has been a generation whose general view of marriage is high enough. The chasm between the biblical vision of marriage and the common human vision is now, and has always been, gargantuan.

The infinite God is infinitely kind to His weak, small-minded, finite creation. In our failure to view marriage highly enough, He allows us to enjoy real love…real fellowship…real companionship…in this momentary marriage. That’s kindness.

So, I will look forward to Heaven with eyes of faith that God has something more grand for His redeemed than my small mind can handle. And to my lovely wife Gina, I have one thing to say…ENJOY ME WHILE YOU GOT ME!