What We May Become 

   “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” (1 John 3: 2) 

   I know what I am now.  I am a sinner, a member of a fallen race.  Yet I also know that I am a child of God.  I know that He loves me so much that He sent His only Son to bring salvation to me and to all who believe.

   So much time can be spent considering what we may become.  In this lifetime we will never know what awaits us when our time here is finished.  John gives us a clue in his first letter when he writes, “We do know that when it is revealed we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3: 2).  To me this doesn’t much help in knowing what I shall become.  I’ve researched several other translations, and none seem to be more definitive.

   Like so many things of a spiritual nature there is no easy answer to the question of what we may become in the next life.  That doesn’t alter the fact that we will be like Jesus, but it still does not tell the whole story.  We shall simply have to wait and see.

   What I do know is that it will be a perfect existence in every possible way.  There will be no pain, no sorrow, only joy and the knowledge of God in a way that is unknown in this life.  It will be full of love as we’ve never known, and it will be eternal.

   I learned a long time ago that there are things I am not intended to know in this lifetime.  If all was known there would be no need for faith and faith is the hope of what is to come even when we can’t have all the answers.  What we will become fits nicely into that concept.  As St. Paul wrote, “What no eye has seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2: 9). 

There are many things hidden to me.

Things I will never know in this lifetime.

I place all my faith in You.

In Your will I am at peace. 

Amen