In Which I Disagree With Dan VanderLugt

So I'm reading this very informative piece asking tough questions about the Bible. And Dan VanderLugt has the unenviable task of trying to sound smart in his answers. I've done it before (not well at all) and so I know where Dan's coming from.

At one point in his answer, Dan says this:

In heaven, our perspective will no longer be dominated by “former things.” Knowledge of past sins or earthly suffering will not cause the same kind of suffering and emotional anguish in heaven that it does now. We will see how God’s grace has healed all of the scars that sin left on our mortal lives. We will see how God’s grace could even use our repented sins to bring about His good purposes.

I may be unfairly picky on Dan, but I don't think Heaven is going to heal scars. I think Heaven is going to celebrate them. My big sis has an ad on her refrigerator that reads "Scars are tattoos with stories."

Those scars are the stories we'll tell and retell of how death or sin had one thing in mind, but love had something else planned for us. The biggest and best story will be about the scars that Jesus has. And no one will hurt for him or pity him or envy him. We'll just glorify him for those scars. In Heaven, our scars tell a story of grace.

20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis 50:20)

I think I'm largely in a state of denial with our little Zoe. I can't imagine her gone. I can't imagine any of what's to come. There's a cut left to be made on me, a cut followed by a scar. And a story of grace.

Angels Wish
by Steven Curtis Chapman

Was God smiling when He spoke the word and made the world?
And did He cry about the flood?

What does God's voice sound like when He sings, when He's angry?
These are just a few things that the angels have on me

Well, I can't fly at least not yet
I've got no halo on my head
And I can't even start to picture heaven's beauty
But I've been shown the Savior's love
The Grace of God has raised me up
To show me things the angels long to look into
And I know things the Angels only wish they knew

I have seen the dark and desperate place where sin will take you
I've felt loneliness and shame
And I have watched the blinding light of grace
Come breaking through with a sweetness only tasted
By the forgiven and redeemed

And someday I'll sit down with my angel friends
Up in heaven
And they'll tell me about Creation
And I'll tell them a story of Grace

Well, I can't fly at least not yet
I've got no halo on my head
And I can't even start to picture heaven's beauty
But I've been shown a Savior's love
The Grace of God has raised me up
To show me things the angels long to look into
And I know things the Angels only wish they knew