As I look at photos of our children I am reminded of how precious they were (and still are) to us, and how great our love was for them. We lavished our love on them. They had a wonderful childhood. They lived in lovely neighborhoods, they went to good schools, they traveled with us to New Zealand and England and enjoyed extensive vacations. How great was the love you had for your children also! But no matter how much you lavished your love on your children, it is miniscule compared to the love your heavenly Father has lavished upon you.

"How great is the love" (Gk.potapos) means "of what country". It is as if the Father's love is so unearthly, so foreign to this world, that he wonders from what country it may come. But that is to be expected -- it comes from the country of God.

A country beyond storm or change,
where rest is complete, but always awake,
active upon the Father's miracles of good;
where light illumines love, and love dazzles light,
where righteousness and peace kiss each other;
where there are no more shames, and no more tears" (Eric Milner-White).

The word implies astonishment.

God's love brought us forth in a new birth of the Spirit and adopted us as his very own children. Despite our rebellion against the Word of life, the Word of God, "yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God" (John 1:12,13).

He came first into our lives in order to make us into his children in this lifetime -- this mortal life. His earthly purpose is to change us into his image -- to become like Christ so that when he appears a second time, when he comes for us again at our passing out of this mortal life, "we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming." In other words, this life is a time of preparation for the life to come. In this life we are like children in school learning a curriculum of righteous living from the text book of the Bible, from the community of faith, and from the life of Christ. We are to grow up in Christ so that we are ready for his coming. We are to continue in him so that we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. We have to prepare for graduation exercises. Those photos of myself at my graduations, fresh-faced and full of joy at completing my childhood education, are reminders of what it will be like when I graduate from this life. Can I be as confident and unashamed as I was then?

What will we look like at that graduation? Will we be like we were at our high school or college graduation? Will we be looking like we were in our late teens or our early twenties? Will we be as handsome and beautiful as we thought we were when we were at our prime? What happened to that person we were? When we pass from this life to the next our physical body is not what it used to be. We probably don't want to retain it in its decrepitude. St. Paul tells us what kind of body we will have in the resurrection. It will be as different from this mortal body as a plant is different from a seed. "When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed.... The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.... We will all be changed -- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye." (1 Corinthians 15)

"What we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2) How shall we become like Christ? Not physically, of course. Apparently when we see Christ as he is in glory, we shall reflect his character. He "will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3:21). "Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven"(1 Cor.15:49). On the last day and through eternity we shall be both with Christ and like Christ.

St. Augustine, in The City of God, speculates about the form of the resurrection bodies of all those who were chosen in Christ before the creation of the world. His conclusion is that in the new heaven and the new earth the body shall be of that size, which it either had attained or should have attained in the flower of its youth, and shall enjoy the beauty that arises from preserving symmetry and proportion in all its members. There shall be no deformity, no infirmity, no weakness, no corruption -- nothing of any kind which would ill become that kingdom in which the children of the resurrection and of the promise shall be equal to the angels of God, if not in body and age, at least in happiness. Whatever has been taken from the body, either during life or after death, shall be restored to it, and, in conjunction with what has remained in the grave, shall rise again, transformed from the oldness of the animal body into the newness of the spiritual body, and clothed in incorruption and immortality.

"No eye has seen, nor ear heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit." (1 Cor.2:9,10)

What will you be like? Do you want to be like Christ? God has lavished his love on you as his child. You will be astonished at what that will do to you if you receive it and respond to it. You will not recognize yourself for God's love will transform you into his image.

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