Matthew Devotions: 22:29

... but we [will be] like angels of God in heaven..."

Heaven is our final destination. But make no mistake, we will no more be angels there, as we are here.

People make the passing from this life to the next life everything but sacred. They argue whether we sleep until the Second Coming, or we immediately raise to be with Christ the moment of the passing. While interesting, these discussions take away from both the Sacredness and Vocation of the Second Birth.

Soon we will understand that there are many categories of creatures in heaven. There are all sort of angels - each with rank and role - all sorts of beasts, all sorts of beings. And then we will arrive, too - separately distinct from all others, joining with them in the ongoing activities of worship and work in the all Eternal Plan of God.

Jesus slammed the pharisees on two accounts (vrs. 29). One: that they did not know the Scriptures. They had accumulated knowledge of the resurrection - from myth and tradition - but had watered down their actual belief in what the Scriptures actually said. For them, the Scriptures were a nice body of information that had their own little world, or reality, about them - whether true or false - not unlike Narnia. They were distant in heart with the Texts who described who they were and their sure future.

He also slammed them for not knowing the power of God. They were unable to grasp the immense New World awaiting those on the Other Side. They had not experienced the power of God through the Holy Spirit (though had witnessed it in Jesus' ministry) and thus based their worldview on the ground of their being, not in the sky of his footstool. For them, the idea of resurrection itself was a myth.

But we are different. We see things from this side of the Tomb. We have a foretaste of the Resurrection Life in the joy we often experience when we worship or pray. We believe the glorious power of Heaven's Love swelled so much for us that - as an old wineskin bursts forth with the inertia of the New Wine - it could no longer be contained and blasted forth from the tomb in violent torrents of Living Water. The stone was the finger in the dike. And no finger can hold back that kind of power.

For believers in Christ, heaven is as real as anything we see, for we live in that Stream.  One Day we will be completely caught up in it - indeed, swept away in it.  One day the  torrents flooding forth from the Tomb itself will not be able to hold back the overwhelming back-flow of Love that God has for us. The rocks will turn to sand and the Rock of Ages will appear, with one - and only one thought in mind - being with you and me!

He will descend from the Throne of Love and escort his Beloved into a New Life - a life of activity, a life of work, a life untainted by sin or the power of the devil where we will join with all of the gloriously redeemed, a motley crew, gathered from all time and places where, I believe, we will to continue on with the good work of proclaiming His Glory and Witness across the unreached creature-groups in the Universe and Beyond, eventually winning all Creation to that same Heaven.

You perhaps were thinking we'd just be strumming harps and singing in choirs?  Wake up, dude. This is not your grandparents' heaven.