One of my favorite things to discuss with kids is how Jesus will one day create a new heaven and earth. The younger ones never fail to be amazed at the idea of a perfect world and the older kids often ask, "How do we know that we won't rebel in the new world just like Adam and Eve?" which is fun to chew on.
I recently told my kindergarten through third graders how the new world will be free from death and how we can swim with sharks without fear. This prompted a question from Alexandra who asked, "Will we be able to pet the sharks?"
"How Glorious Is The Life Above" is a wonderful Wesley hymn that will whet your appetite for the new world even more than the prospect of petting sharks. Enjoy!
How glorious is the life above
Which in this ordinance we taste,
That fullness of celestial love,
That joy which shall for ever last!
That heavenly life in Christ concealed
These earthen vessels could not bear;
The part which now we find revealed
No tongue of angels can declare.
The light of life eternal darts
Into our souls a dazzling ray;
A drop of Heaven o’erflows our hearts,
And deluges the house of clay.
Sure pledge of ecstasies unknown
Shall this divine communion be:
The ray shall rise into a sun,
The drop shall swell into a sea.
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I've often wondered if our status in the New Jerusalem is greater than that which Adam and Eve had. A lot of theological terms make it sound like it will be just as it was (Milton's Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained), but then we get the questions your Sunday School kids ask. Adam and Eve had unblemished natures, but were they considered son and daughter of God, and brother and sister of Christ? Adam and Eve didn't have full knowledge of good and evil, but John makes it sound in Revelation that we know of disease, sadness, and death, and that they don't exist anymore.
Such thoughts are too high for me. I don't even know if I'll pet the sharks.
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