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that's a shapely one
Marriage is a recurring theme in catechism class because it is a recurring theme in the Bible. Typically we cover this story during our trip through the Gospels:
"Master, there were with us seven brothers: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? Jesus said, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."
Without fail a child will ask me why I won't be married to my wife in heaven- won't we still love each other?
Part of my answer is that post-Eden, marriage lasts until the death of a spouse. But I also want to say something bigger about life after the Second Coming; that is, in the New Jerusalem- like so:
"Somebody tell me what wasn't good in Eden. Adam was alone! Yes, and? God made Eve out of his rib. Yes, and when he got his missing rib back he was completed, just like I am completed by by wife. Y'all tell me about my wife. You love her! I sure do...but why? Umm, she's you're wife? Well, yes...let's say I love her because she is good. Where's that goodness come from? God? Yes; tell me about creation. It was all good! Yes! So all the goodness we experience ultimately comes from...God. Yes. So my wife is like a book...or a TV...or Elisha's bones...c'mon, y'all know this... she's a media, cause God goes through her! Yes, a medium, she mediates God to me, like sacraments and all kinds of stuff do. Do I get the full dose of God though my wife? Huh? Is all the goodness of God available to me through my wife? Well, God's bigger than she is. Yes. But if I'm hanging out with Jesus after the Second Coming, do I get all God's goodness then? Yes! And if my wife is there...she gets it too. Yes. So is there more love between us now- or in the future? In the future! Yes. So if we will have even more love for each other while we're in God's company, how worried are we going be about how married we are? Well, maybe you wouldn't care anymore. Sort of, but not exactly...let's think of it this way: instead of the limited dose of love we get from each other here, we'll experience infinite love in heaven. It'll include all the love we have as husband and wife, but bigger: it will include everybody. Yes? But aren't you still going to miss being married in heaven? I don't think so. Imagine it like this:
Let's say I need water to live- without water I'd be incomplete, right? What? Can I live without water? No, you'd die. Without water would life be good? No you have to have it. Yes, so think of my wife, and the love she brings me, as water. I need it. And I'm ok, because I have a pitcher of lovewater right here, next to me, which is... your wife! Yes. I hug this pitcher against my heart like Adam's missing rib. And all around me right now in the classroom- is there more water? There's no water in here. Right. Except for my pitcher-full.
But eventually my wife and I will die- let's hope we'll both be in heaven, where love might be like an infinite ocean. Now imagine I walk into that sea of lovewater with my pitcher-full. See, it gets deeper and deeper, until...your pitcher is underwater! Yes. Tell me about it. Well, the water in the pitcher is part of the ocean now. Yes. But the pitcher is still there, and it's still full, right? Yes, but the ocean is way bigger. Yes. The lovewater in my pitcher has merged with the infinite lovewater that's all around me and my pitcher. My little pitcher-full doesn't disappear: it's just where it was always meant to be. There will be many pitchers, but one water. So what we love about being married today will still be true in heaven and in the New Jerusalem, but unimaginably bigger and better."
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BTW, the above is similar to how I answer the question about pets in heaven:
"Everything that you love about your pets (and everything else) will be more fully available to you in heaven; and in the New Jerusalem I would expect to see dogs and trees and all the rest of creation, so be happy."
