Sunday, February 24, 2008

Of Such Is the Kingdom of Heaven

“Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

My sister Lil and I recently had a bit of a discussion about children in Heaven. I mentioned about a retired minister I know who does not believe anyone in heaven will be children – that we will all be equal, disembodied souls. She immediately responded with “Of such is the kingdom of heaven” – implying that it is literally so, because there are more children in heaven than adults. We usually think of it as meaning that we must come to Christ in childlike trust and faith, which is true enough, but it is equally true that many scriptures can contain multiple (not contradictory) meanings. I just recently came to the understanding (through the heavenly experiences of my great-niece Kathryn) that people who died while they were children are still children in heaven – maybe not the same age as they were on earth, but still children nonetheless. I often wondered about that, because it is not addressed specifically in the Bible. I wondered if they would all grow up, and eventually there would be only adults in heaven. I’m glad to know that isn’t so; wouldn’t heaven be less than perfect without any children? When you think of all the miscarriages, stillbirths and childhood deaths of the past, and even now in countries without good medical care, as well as the horrendous numbers of abortions, there simply have to be far more children than adults in Heaven.

Kathryn tells of children in heaven who are there because of miscarriages – when determining the age of the body the Father gives them, he takes into consideration what would please their earthly parents. If the parents had already chosen a name for them, they have that name; at least, that was the case with the ones Kathryn met. He also gives them specific children’s “days” – although time is not the same there as here. Kathryn described one of those days with children playing in the field with kites and hot air balloons. Another time they were visiting the big farm and playing with the animals there. And children get to watch their parents and siblings who are still living. People in heaven get to see what goes on with those still on earth, and they can still pray to Jesus on their behalf.

I have a child in Heaven as a result of a miscarriage; a friend of mine has a child in Heaven as a result of a forced abortion. We like to think of our two little girls playing together in Heaven and waiting for us to meet them there.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doris, that is simply GREAT and I hope a lot of people read it, eventually, and I hope they will comment to encourage you. You obviously did follow my advice to talk to Kathryn about it, as you had details that I did not know. Love, Lil

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing that with me earlier, and again now. You have no idea how much it means to me, and the pain it helped to ease.

Dee

Kathryn said...

You wrote this very well. I was glad to help you. I hope it continues to be a blessing to many more people.