This is the final post of three, each addressing different aspects of this question: Will disability exist in heaven? It's not an easy question, so you might want to read the previous two posts before reading through this one.
My first answer would have been no. I'm not sure when I realized that I could be wrong, but it rocked my world. I've been trying to write this post for several months, and I couldn't get the words right. (And I might still not be able to, so I'm praying that God will cover over my faults and make himself clear here, despite my imperfect delivery.)
This series of posts has gotten more attention than usual, so let me take a step back to introduce myself and my context if you're new here. I coordinate disability ministry at Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC, and get the opportunity to work with families each week whose lives are affected by disability. And I have a couple of chronic health issues, including one that has resulted in a mild degree of physical disability.
So what's the answer? Will disability exist in heaven?
1. Heaven cannot include any aspect of disability that causes tears or death or mourning or crying or pain or thirst or hunger, per Revelation 21:4 & 21:6, Revelation 7:16-17, 1 Corinthians 15:26, and Isaiah 35:10.
For myself, I can answer the question posed by this series easily. No, my physical limitations will not exist in heaven. I know that for sure because
several of the first five verses I shared yesterday tell us that no pain or crying or mourning will be there. I am in pain now, and the greatest written authority we have - the Bible - lets me know that eternity will not include rheumatoid arthritis. Any disability that includes pain will either be gone in heaven or redeemed (i.e., the condition still present, but the pain gone). Kids won't have congenital heart defects or difficulties eating or tearful anxiety or an inability to communicate or anything else like that in heaven. Neither will adults.
2. If heaven does include the aspects of disability that cause sighing and sorrow here on earth, they will be transformed into joy and gladness in heaven, per Isaiah 35:10.
Many of the tears and sighing and sorrow among those with disabilities are not the result of the disability itself but rather the response of others.
When a mom has to pay the neighbor kids to come to her child's birthday party, the sorrow isn't the child's disability but the isolating response - or lack of response - from the families who have to be bribed to attend.
When my friend Donna's son was asked not to return to the youth program at church because of his disability, her pain wasn't caused by the disability but by the people in the church. The emotional pain of disability - the exhaustion and exclusion, for example - will be left behind, even if other aspects of the disability last beyond this world.
As far as the aspects of disability that aren't inherently painful but do - in the response of others - cause pain here on earth, what will stay with us in heaven and what will be left behind?
3. We're not going to care what the answer is once we get there, per Romans 8:18 & 24-25 and 1 Corinthians 5:7.
I know people with autism who believe that they'll have autism in heaven, because they would be someone else completely without it because that's so much of who they are. I know others who are looking forward to an autism-free eternity.
In my post on Wednesday, I shared the views of a few parents who hope and expect that their children will still have Down syndrome in heaven, but I know other parents who are hoping to get to know their child
minus the Down syndrome in heaven. So who will be disappointed when they find out they're wrong?
Neither. They'll be in heaven, and no one will be disappointed by what's in store there. If anything is different from our expectations, it'll be different in a very, very good way.
So why bother considering this question as a church leader or member involved with people with disabilities? If we can't truly answer the question in full because we won't know for sure until we get there, what's the point of this conversation? If now we live by faith and we don't know what living by sight will look like just yet, what does that mean for the church?
This conversation is worth having because it challenges our biases. Considering the possibility of a heaven with Down syndrome, for example, challenges the oft-condescending approach to disability ministry of the superior
us helping the inferior
them. We're more likely then to invite those with disability
to serve and not just
be served in our churches. When we consider the aspects of disability that expose the flaws of our culture and perceptions, then we're forced to realize that maybe we're the ones with the problem in need of fixing.
The other takeaway is that some people with disabilities consider their special needs to be temporary suffering while others think that they are eternally connected in identity to their disabilities. In the absence of a clear answer from scripture, I don't think it's our place to declare either wrong or right. It is our place to welcome those with disabilities, even if our answers about disability in heaven aren't identical.
We are all the body of Christ, with each part designed differently by the choice of the Designer (1 Corinthians 12, especially verse 18).
And how about you? What do you think? Have these three posts changed your way of thinking about disability and heaven?
I'd love to hear what you have to say, so please join the conversation by leaving a comment!
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P.S. If you haven't done so already, go comment on my post about Different Dream Parenting so that you can have a chance to win your own copy. Today is your last chance, and I'll be announcing a winner this afternoon!
