I'm having such a random thought process right now, but I decided I should blog this thought so that it can formulate and then I hopefully won't forget it.
There's this idea of the Kingdom of God, the place where there is no crap in the world and all is redeemed. Sickness, illness, unhealthy and unloving characteristics we display, etc...all will be redeemed and will look something more like how it did in the Garden of Eden.
So, I have a friend/student named Roz who is 22 years old but has the mental and emotional capacity of an 8 year old. Sometimes it can be frustrating to interact with her, especially when she's in weird funks and perceives circumstances incorrectly. At other times, I fully enjoy being around her even though she says weird things. To be honest, I find it quite amusing. But then I'm given insight about her struggles...how she doesn't want anyone to know she's disabled (though it's plainly obvious to most people)...or how she tries so very much to fit in with other 22 year olds but cannot...or how she's caught between wanting a certain level of friendship with people though she cannot maintain that level of friendship with them...and I just don't know what to do with it. I wish she could have the types of friendships she desires and interact with other 22 year olds how she feels pressured to. It makes me sad, and I wish it didn't have to be so.
I find myself from time to time being thankful thinking that someday in heaven Roz will be "normal" and be able to interact with us normally because her disability will be no more. But lately I've been thinking that perhaps she will hardly be different in heaven than she is now. Perhaps what we see as a "disability" for Roz is really not a disability in the Kingdom of God. Perhaps God fully intended Roz to be the way she is and that what will really change once we are in heaven is
our perception toward her, not
her behavior. Perhaps the redeemed state of Roz's problems is not that she becomes socially normal, but that our skewed view of what is beautiful, right, precious, and valuable is changed to that of the loving and compassionate Father who is a masterful creator.
I don't really know what my point is, except maybe that when some people don't measure up to my social expectations and become frustrating to me, like Roz, the point is not necessarily to "fix" them. I don't think we are supposed to "fix" Roz and teach her to become socially normal. (I mean, I think on one hand it's helpful for her so that she can stop getting in trouble and maybe stop hitting people...but I think you get what I'm saying. :P ) I think what's actually supposed to happen when the Kingdom of God enters that situation is supposed to be that the log in my own eye and the way my own sin cause me to improperly perceive Roz will be whittled away so that I can love her as she is. I honestly don't think she'll become "socially normal" in heaven. I think maybe we'll just be way better at loving her for who she is because our own sin will no longer taint our relationships with her.
I don't know. Is that even theologically correct? No idea, but for now I still think it's all probably true.
Comments (6)
I have a really good friend (she's 10 years older than me) who is in a similar situation as Roz. She and I talk a lot about what heaven will be like... and she told me the thing she's looking forward to the MOST is having people understand her. She says the most frustrating thing is that people don't "get" her. And she hates trying to express a feeling inside and not being able to get it out. So even if Roz and my friend don't become "socially normal" in heaven, I bet they won't have to deal with that frustration of not being understood. Maybe it's because we'll understand, or maybe it's because they'll be able to express themselves the way they want. And who knows? Maybe it'll turn out that they were wiser than everyone else all along~
thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, dear!
you heretic.
burn her at the stick!
no just kidding. heh. Very interesting thought indeed.
I'm going to write a song about this. And when I'm done, it will be yours to use as you will. I don't think you know, but I've been blessed immeasurably. This is a bit of payback.
@stellaluna012 - my thoughts as well. i meant to say that, though i didn't say it explicitly. but yes...exactly my thoughts. YOU ARE GONNA MOVE NEAR US SOOOOOOON.
"your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
the less emphasized, but equally true part of this is that her relational deficiencies are merely obvious manifestations of the ones that you and I have, but have worked hard to hide and mask. and insomuch as roz needs relational fulfillment, you and i need it too. i don't think that the conclusion is that roz doesn't need to be healed, but it's that we all need to be healed just as much as she does; her mental and emotional state serves to highlight the need that we all have.
what do you think?
hey, interesting reflections.. indeed, life can be so gray in what we see to be wrong, the problem, the sin, etc.
"I think maybe we'll just be way better at loving her for who she is because our own sin will no longer taint our relationships with her."
I guess my thoughts on Roz, Heaven, and our skewed perceptions of what is precious and beautiful vs. what is abnormal is... that perhaps redemption will be both Roz's frustrations and human limitations, as well as our incredibly skewed perceptions of Roz and all the Roz's in the world... times a zillion, and then raised to the thousanth power. Quite unimaginable.. but my guess is that being in the presence of the King, and living under His amazing rule will be just that - unimaginably good, true, beautiful, and all of us will enter into a kind of fullness to life that we could not perceive in the chapter before the restoration.
Cheers to all the Rozs who remind us of the groaning and longing we all have for a better kingdom.