Plan B

Tonight I had what may be the most iconoclastic thought to ever enter my brain.

Among the relatively little bit of information we have in the Bible about heaven is the curious fact that there will be “no marriage or giving in marriage.” Does that mean we won't recognize our earthly spouses? I shouldn't think so. I expect that the sensory and intellectual faculties of our tremendously upgraded bodies will be better, not worse than the ones we have now. And I expect we will have very good memory recall ability about our lives in this world. Otherwise, what value would they have? What use all the pain we have suffered and how much more so that of Christ? Surely we will gain from what we learn here in this life and will appreciate the presence of Christ in the context of having lived on this earth separated from Him and then at best in a long distance relationship.

Anyway, I have long thought, based on the no marriage in heaven thing, that marriage on earth may not have been God's original plan for mankind. We may have been intended to have deep intimate relationships with many many people. If there was no jealousy, no disease, no need to work and conserve resources for the support of family, no constraints of time, there may not have been the need for marriage. This is a thought I haven't shared with many people because the ramifications are so out there and sound so contrary to what we think of as a proper Christian family lifestyle. And we know that Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed before the fall and the ramifications of that fact can be hard for our sensibilities to deal with. Of course, the fall happened when there was only one man and one woman on the planet, so there is no way to know what might have been if there had been a lot of people around before it all got messed up. But based on the above known facts and the difficulty of marriage and the immense difficulties of human relationships in general and male/female relationships in particular, I truly believe that marriage is a plan B. It's a good plan B, provided by a loving God to help us survive in this fallen world. And I'm not trying to degrade it or say it's not the mode in which we should operate as things are in the here and now, just that IF there hadn't been a fall, there wouldn't be marriage. I believe we were designed for something very different.

So that's something I've thought for a long time. Now to the really iconoclastic part. One might say of marriage, “But it's the picture of the Church, the Bride of Christ.” But if the fall hadn't happened, there would be no church. There would be no segregated out bride, no chosen people, no distinction at all. All would be in equal unhindered relationship with God and with each other. In other words, all would share the deepest intimacy and the best of what now can only really exist and be blessed inside the context of marriage. As it is, we can only have a little piece of what was meant to be and that with only one person. I think God's plan A would have been mind-blowingly better.

But I suppose that if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, somebody in the billions who have lived since then would have. And if not, I'm sure I would have been the first. So I'm thankful that God is in the business of plan B. And He is amazing at it.