Will we remember our earthly lives in heaven?

Exploring the unknown with a child is a great delight. The imaginative powers of a child can raise questions that may have been dismissed as unimportant or lost time to consider. Children have a fascination with heaven and the life to come, and some of the questions they ask push us back to reconsider what we know.

This brilliant question pushes us to the heart of what the continuities and discontinuities will be between now and the life to come. We do need to ask a few questions as to what the question is about. These may seem picky or pedantic, but they do make a difference. The main question is around whether we are talking about heaven as the place we go when we die, where God dwells, or the new creation as our final, eternal home where God remakes heaven and earth. Heaven is only a temporary place we go to after death as we await new bodies. What difference does this make to the question? Well, quite a lot!

When we look at the risen Jesus (who is the firstborn from the dead), he remembered his friends and all that had happened

Will we remember our earthly lives after we die?

A key passage here is from Revelation 6:10-11, where the martyrs (those who have been killed for their faith) are crying out to God for justice:

‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

It seems clear that after death, we will have clear memories of our earthly lives, at least to a degree. We will still be aware of injustices which we are waiting for God, the judge, to make right.

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Will we remember our earthly lives in the new creation?

This is a trickier question. When Jesus returns (whether we are dead in heaven or still alive), we will be given new bodies just as He has. In doing so, we will be made new and perfect. Sin will be removed, and all sinful desires will be utterly reformed.

When we look at the risen Jesus (who is the firstborn from the dead), he remembered his friends and all that had happened. His body bore the memories of his sacrifice in his wounds.

And yet at the same time, Isaiah writes in a key verse,

‘See, I will create

new heavens and a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered,

nor will they come to mind. (Isaiah 65:17)

There seems to be a sense in which we have no memory of sin from this life. It haunts us no longer and the shame no longer cripples us in the way it often does now. At the resurrection (but not when we are just in heaven after death) sin has been finally dealt with and removed such that we will not even be able to imagine it (just as we cannot imagine a sinless new creation now). It seems to me that there must be some memory change here as we are made new.

I’m sure there will be people I recognise in heaven, and there are an increasing number of people whom I’m looking forward to seeing in the new creation

A further mystery to add to this, which may raise further questions, is the celebration of God’s people over the judgment which God brings.

And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying:

‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

the One who is and who was,

because you have taken your great power

and have begun to reign.

The nations were angry,

and your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead,

and for rewarding your servants the prophets

and your people who revere your name,

both great and small –

and for destroying those who destroy the earth.’ (Revelation 11:16-18)

This celebration may be over loved ones who rejected Jesus. How can we do that if we still have loving memories of them?

And yet, I’m sure there will be people I recognise in heaven, and there are an increasing number of people whom I’m looking forward to seeing in the new creation. Is this wishful thinking? Perhaps. As with so many of these questions, they remain a mystery and only raise further questions. But that is part of the joy of walking through the Christian life with a child and trying to fathom the depths of God’s ways together.