Heaven will be a perfect environment.  How will we be known when we reach the home of God?  How will you know the saints in their perfect bodies free from the sins in this world?  Will we know our children, and how will we recognize all the aborted fetuses that are alive and well, playing in heaven?       

    We will know our children in heaven.  Paul writes in 1Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Our children will be in heaven by the grace of God just like the Old Testament saints will be in heaven.  God did not hold the children accountable when adults refused to enter the land of promise.  When the report came back from Joshua and Caleb saying we can possess the land, Israel refused.  With that decision God rejected the adults from entering the promise land except for Joshua, Caleb and “your little ones…and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in and…I give it (the land), and they shall possess it.” (Deut1:39 KJ)

    God states that He is angry at the killing of children.  Ezekiel 16:20, 21 states that you have “slain My children, and delivered them to pass through the fire” as a sacrifice and death.  King David knew how precious the life of a baby was to God.  Even in his sin with Bathsheba and the birth out of wedlock, 2 Samuel 12:23, David cries out in faith to God while the child was yet alive.  But when he died David concluded in faith.  How “can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” Todd Burpo in his book, “Heaven Is for Real,” related the story of Colton meeting a sister older than him from a miscarriage. It is interesting that the child was totally unaware that there was ever a conception of the older child. God told Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you.” In a later chapter of Jeremiah 29:11(ESV) “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

    “Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them” and said, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold, My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” (Luke 24:39) This is the description of the resurrected savior, Jesus the Christ in flesh and bone. In Matthew 17 the Bible describes the scene when Peter, James and John went to the high part of the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and there appeared to them Moses and Elijah. No one revealed the identity of these Old Testament saints. Peter recognized them and wanted to build a tabernacle to each one. In heaven I shall “know even as also I am known.” Certainly, this expresses a higher intellect than man knows in this world today.  

    What about emotion?  The believer in heaven will have desires similar to those we have in this life. The Psalmist recorded in 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word shall never pass away.  Thus, we read of emotion which will bring singing, banquets, laughter and all the joys of heaven.  The Sermon on the Mount by Jesus points out that hunger will be filled. Blessed are those that weep now for they shall laugh. These are a few of the joys that God intends for every believer. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1Co 2:9)

    N. Brad Carter is a bible class teacher on WMER (1390 AM) Radio. Email him at rbc@wmerworldwide.com.