Shifting to the Future

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him. - 1 Cor 2:9

Christian leaders often teach that Adam and Eve are the models of what people are supposed to be like - God’s original and best design. Sometimes this has been used against those who, for various reasons, don’t fit into the clean categories of male/female.

Megan K. DeFranza, in her book Sex Difference in Christian Theology, points out that “As helpful as the creation accounts may be, they are not to be understood as the paradigm or final form for humanity. Rather, true humanity is a future toward which we are moving.” It seems that the Apostle Paul would agree with DeFranza that we don’t know what exactly heave is going to be like but that it will be definitively better.

Jesus himself points out how there will be no marriage in heaven and that we will be ‘like the angels of God,’ again emphasizing that the future is more of our goal than the past. It’s the new creation, not the first creation, that is our destiny.

How does it change how you think of your current state to focus on the future more than the past as a source of motivation for participating in God’s work in you? How might this way of thinking shift how you view others?