Like Him

In our century it has become increasingly clear that man's desire to be free of the surly bonds of earth and soar into the heavens has brought him to the very brink of new era. He has reached for the stars and seems to have taken a first feeble step into near space. Armstrong's historical statement, "One small step for man, one giant step for mankind," seems to summarise man's eternal quest for the heavens.

In spite of all the fantasising of science fiction, man is quickly becoming acutely aware of the many practical scientific problems posed in his penetration of outer space. It would seem that man is just too inhibited by the continuum of time, matter, energy and space to ever conceivably achieve his dream. The time required for man to travel safely at the speed required, using any propulsion and environmental survival systems that can be envisioned today, far exceeds man's survival capacity. The fragility of man's frame and the sensitivity of his biological systems mitigate against successful extended space travel.

Man's only real hope of breaking away from the forces of gravity and truly leaving the restrictive confines of this earth, lie in another direction entirely. Man  has the answer he seeks and the freedom he desires, but he does not seem to be willing to understand it or accept it. Man is truly designed for the stars, but he does not seem willing to fully come to grips with or grasp his eternal destiny.  A simple statement in the Word of God clearly settles the issue. John, in speaking of eternal sons of God said, "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.." If we are to know the fantastic future our Creator God has in store for those eternal sons He has chosen as the eternal objects of His love in Christ Jesus, we only need to know what He is like. What He is like, physically, intellectually and spiritually is the key to our eternal existence. To really explore our future we must examine what He is like in His resurrected body. Because, as even Job understood two thousand years before the event, eternal sons and daughters of God will be given a completely new resurrected body - like Him.

Paul made sure we understood that this new body entailed an entirely different and glorious sphere of existence. Physically, that automatically entails transcending the continuum's of time, space and matter. Jesus clearly set aside the limitations of time, space and distance after His resurrection. Evidently he travelled from earth to paradise, to heaven and back to earth in an instantaneous manner. We can only speculate about the vast stellar distances involved. In doing so laws relating to energy and propulsion would of necessity be negated. Because our finite minds cannot comprehend such fantastic we are hesitant to fully accept it or speculate upon its full implications.

Perhaps it is enough to rejoice in being the eternal sons of God who will see some day Him as He is and be like Him in eternity!