Womb with a view: the endings and beginnings of eternal life?

The upcoming 'what are we waiting for conference' (download updated flier here ) has got me thinking about the end of the world - not in a gloomy chicken licken end is nigh  or in a 'good riddance' way but reflecting again on the profound mystery of it all.

What struck my imagination was the language of creation/birth/beginnings - of a (re)new(ed) earth, followers of Jesus described as  new creations, who experience new birth/life in that most magical and mysterious of tri-une interactions so that we are reconceived and  'born again."

In the beginning, so the epic poem of creation in Genesis 1 (the opening book of the great sypmphany of life that is the bible), there is a new earth/creation formed and in the end, so the last book in the bible,  Revelation, tells us, there will again be a new earth - or the old earth renewed/reborn.  In the beginning there was the miracle and mystery of new life and in the end life will again be created new. 

In other words when we believe in Jesus we become part of creation that is remembered, renewed, recreated - in Jesus all of the universe, all of us, gets knitted together, finds a place to be needed and fully formed.  In Jesus we get to live for ever, apart from Jesus our lives fragment and drift away - we are not remembered/restored/resurected.

In my mind I wondered whether the life that we know now is like a baby in the womb - we are aware of our phyiscial environment, we interact with it, we are alive, we feel, we touch and we can even interact with the world beyond what we can see - if someone prods us from beyond the veil we can prod back.  However, we have no idea really of what the world beyond is like, what we experience we know and that is our reality.  When we are born, we leave the darkness for the bright light and enter into a whole new, bigger world, which makes our previous experience seem so finite and limited in comparison (no wonder babies sleep so much to process the sensory shock of their new environment)...

Maybe life as we know it now is as limited as a baby in the womb?  Maybe we resemble our future eternal selves as much as a baby resembles the adult they will grow to become , with all the vast range of skills, knowledge, experience and sensory input that becomes available - between baby and adult there is a vague similarity but so vastly different that it is hard to imagine.  And yet to the proud parent maybe there is no lessoning of their love from when the baby is conceived to when he or she is a fully grown adult.

Is death a stage like the new born baby who sleeps all the time - a state of recovery, transition, aclimatisation?  Maybe that's why the bible writers partly refer to death as being like a sleep (or maybe?

Is the womb of this world where we have opportunity to grow, develop, form character, personality, individuality  - and if we allow the Spirit to shape us those elements of us will echo on into eternity - an eternal life in Jesus where we become fully formed, recognisable as who we were in this life - now no longer babies but fully grown, fully human beings?

Death becomes not the end but another beginning, a transition, a birthing experience that ushers into something so much more wonderful than we can begin to understand or imagine

I wonder:

• How do you imagine eternal life?
• What do you imagine our resurected life to be like - what does it mean for you you to think of our bodies and our humanity fully restored/reneweed/recreated? 
• Do you find the image of a baby/adult one that inspires you in thinking about this?
• What other metaphors/thoughts would you use?

Comments

[marc]

Very mate, very deep indeed...the mystery I have for you is this: why didn't you get up in time for church on sunday:)

[Paul]

Thanks Marc :)

as for sunday, my son alarm clock failed to wail awake and therefore we slept in :)

[sacred vapor]

The baby/adult image does inspire me in 'afterlife' thinking, particularly in terms of growth. A baby simply reacts to her environment and it is the attentiveness to the caretaker that something like 'knowledge' is properly attained. I would also add that the baby/adult analogy is the only way I can properly understand a theology of suffering in our current world.

In terms of the afterlife, I heard N.T. Wright mention this, but it is interesting that Jesus still had his wound marks in his trans-physical body. Is it possible that our wounds of infliction, like perhaps people with unfortunate disabilities, that those wounds somehow become objects of glory in the afterlife? An example might be that people who are blind in this life, see a higher level of beauty in the afterlife. Just a speculation of course.

My point in mentioning this, is although the the baby/adult analogy portrays a large gap of existence... of experiential reality, that there is still a connection between this life and the afterlife. That what we do now matters and the afterlife is an extension to that.

anyway... enough rambling,
good post

paul del signore

[Isaac Roth]

Oh, yah!

It's a "sypmphany of life" certainly.

I can’t wait until I'm resurected [sic] and go through this aclimatisation [sic]. I hope it turns out to be just as wonderful as you so articulately surmise.

Do you ever wonder if there will be schools in the afterlife? You know, for remedial stuff.

[Paul]

Thanks Paul, i think for me that is the powerful connection between life now and life to come, that they are part of continuation rather than some form of seperate state - the fact that we get our bodies back, that we are recognisably the same and yet so different was what sparked the thought between womb and world.

[Paul]

Thanks Isaac - well i hope we can still be learning, growing, wondering - so yeah i kinda hope there are still schools :)

[kay]

**"Is the womb of this world where we have opportunity to grow, develop, form character, personality, individuality - and if we allow the Spirit to shape us those elements of us will echo on into eternity - an eternal life in Jesus where we become fully formed, recognizable as who we were in this life - now no longer babies but fully grown, fully human beings?"**

I've been having similar thoughts myself over the past few days (inspired by a book I'm reading). In fact such thoughts led me to pray last night for the first time in a while. My prayer was "Teach me, mold me, shape me. Help me to become that which can freely and willingly abide with you in eternity."

[Paul]

thanks Kay, what book are you reading? That is a beautiful prayer too, especially at the start of a new yr...