A few nights ago Benjamin’s daddy, my Mark, rolled over in bed and touched my hand. He was not yet asleep, but not really awake, either – suspended in that dreamlike state one travels through for a few precious seconds before diving into slumber. “Do you think, when we get there, we’ll ask God all our questions?” he whispered in the dark. “Or will we just say . . . holy, holy, holy . . . just . . . holy holy holy . . . ”
And then we fell asleep. -Carolyn Arends in Living the Questions
Most of the time, I truly believe that our questions won’t matter when we get to heaven. That any questions we have about why the universe is run in a certain way will all fade away in the awesomeness of being in heaven. With God. I believe that our perspective will be so different, and we won’t care about the things that seem so huge and overwhelming here.
Sometimes, though, when good people get sick or die while not-very-nice people live contentedly, I do wonder about things. I wonder why some people’s marriages seem so hard, while others appear to have a fairly easy time of it. I wonder why good parents have kids who go astray.
This weekend was a questioning kind of weekend for me. I have been trying to remind myself that God isn’t threatened by my questions, even if people are. As a friend said earlier this weekend, sometimes the world seems so backwards. And it’s okay to feel that way. We only see a small part of the overall picture. I’m reminding myself of that as I try to move from questions to trust.
Then I discover inside me a space as big
And believe that I’m meant to be filled up
With more than just questions. – Chris Rice
No Trackbacks
You can leave a trackback using this URL: http://throughaglass.net/archives/2004/10/25/questions-in-heaven/trackback/
9 Comments
if, when we get there, all my questions don’t matter…I’d be fine with that.
I’m not expecting anything but Jesus to matter when we get there, though I’m naturally inquisitive.
I thought of Chris Rice, too, when I saw the title.
This quote just seems so appropriate, and it’s one of my favorites:
“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903; in Letters to a Young Poet
I like that, Susan. Thanks.
I think the questions will be irrelevant because they aren’t themselves transcendent. To put it another way, I think the questions are part of the curse of being alive. There’s so much good that can be said about life, how wonderful and how rich it can be; but it’s foolish to not also talk, even if only for a moment, about how life can be a curse. And I think that such questions are a part of that curse. I think the questions won’t matter – not because because we’ll have the answers – but because we’ll be free of the curse. Don’t get me wrong, Kari – I’m not at all saying that you’re silly or stupid to ask these questions…God knows I’m practically obsessed with them at this stage of my life. I just don’t think we’ll care.
At least, that’s what I hope, because if heaven is an eternity of having questions and not having answers…part of me would rather just be obliterated than be there.
I don’t think that the questions will matter when we get to heaven, either. Most of the time I am able to satisfy myself with that thought, that when I get that perspective change, none of this earthly stuff will matter.
My point was, this weekend was one of those times when that thought wasn’t really enough.
So, in general, I agree. Except . . . I do think we’ll have answers. I just don’t think they’ll look like we expect.
i usually don’t post quotes…but this one fits.
“Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think… How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask – half our great theological and metaphysical problems – are like that.” – C.S. Lewis
there really is no solace concerning those questions. there is no good answer. there is only some comfort in knowing you’re not the only one who doesn’t get it.
(also…i love carolyn arends.)
Keep on asking, Kari!
Any practice that lines up with half the book of Psalms can’t be bad!