Of the Hereafter
[Modified from the Writer's Almanac for 11-29] After the death of his wife, Joy, in 1960, CS Lewis was devastated. He wrote a book, A Grief Observed (1961), which contained his thoughts, questions, and observations. It was so raw and personal that he published it under a pseudonym. Friends actually recommended the book to him, to help with his grief, unaware that he'd written it. His authorship wasn't made known until after his death in 1963. In the book, he writes that he doesn't believe people are reunited with their loved ones in the next life.
~What do you think? Will we see our departed loved ones in heaven?
Comments
Subsequent generations of people will reuse some of the same atoms that are in our bodies. But they will not be us. If people possess some quality that endures beyond this physical sphere, then existence in that sphere must necessarily be profoundly different, experience in that sphere must be profoundly different, and our notions of attachment are likely to be profoundly different. So the suggestion that our attachments here will translate directly to that sphere seem naive, at best. One might as well ask, will I want anchovies on my pizza and will I still be addicted to coffee?
Well, scripture is clear that they aren't married in the next life, but more than that I don't think we can say definitively. It appears that people continue to be recognizable as themselves. They do many things, mostly praising God, but other things as well.
Thanks - I also remember reading "A Severe Mercy," by Sheldon Vanauken [and I believe Lewis may have written a preface or an endorsement of that book?]...In it the author claims his deceased wife was present in his life for awhile, in spirit, after she died...