The Beginning of Nations: Act Four
The man and his woman were both naked but were not ashamed.
Did you miss the previous episode?
The tour guide led us to a narrow doorway of a large lecture hall. He lifted his chin towards the entrance, turned, and disappeared down the dark corridor, his robes billowing behind him. We glanced at each other, then filed in, one at a time. The student desks descended in semi-circular rows, separated right and left by a central staircase. At the bottom of the stairs, facing forward, was a desk of thick, heavy, and ornately carved oak. The lighting was dim, but not so much that we could not see the words on the blackboard.
Naked and unashamed
I did not remain near the top as others did. Were they trying to stay as far away from the lecturer as possible? Some opted to sit in the bottom tiers. I played it safe, sitting somewhere in the middle where I could see and hear without being expected to participate. As soon as we all got settled, a tall, graceful woman walked in to greet us. She was tall, taller than me, and dressed in loosely spun fabric. The tunic draped over her shoulders in a cascade of cream and gold. She leaned against the edge of the desk, holding a piece of thick, white chalk in her dusty hands.
Who was she?
She cleared her throat. “I was told that you have some questions.”
Someone in the front row raised their hand. But they were not the person who had asked the question that got us here. I looked around. Where were they? Oh, they were sitting in the back with their head down.
“What is your question,” she asked.
“Sex,” they replied. “Didn’t Adam and Eve have sex while they were in the garden? They were man and wife, right?”
Who was that? Others may have been thinking the same thing, but who would come right out and say it? Goodness gracious.
The lecturer nodded and flushed slightly. “Thank you for not beating around the bush.” She stood up and waved her chalk high in the air. “So, let’s get to it.”
She spun around to the other side of the desk to face the chalkboard, and her long, glossy white hair swung around with her. She wrote in large block printed letters under the statement already on the board.
In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.
She turned around to face us with a grin. “Any questions?”
“That’s it?” I blurted out. I covered my mouth with my hand, then quickly added, “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that.”
She laughed. “How did you mean to say it?”
I squeezed my forehead as twitters of laughter broke out from behind me. I couldn’t blame them. It was funny. “What I meant was … the resurrection happened not that long ago. That’s why we are all here now, right?” I looked around, but no one would meet my eyes in solidarity.
“Yes…” she said, encouraging me to go on.
“When Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden, that wasn’t a resurrection.”
Her silver eyebrows arched, and her smile broadened.
“Was it?” I added.
She winked at me. “That is a good question,” she said, then directed her attention toward the others. “Who of you were alive when the trumpet sounded?”
Only one person raised their hand—the one who did not know the story of Eve until the previous exhibit. Oh, that made sense. I was told, in the end, there were no churches, at least none like I had attended in my youth. By then, people were worshipping in small home churches and using limited materials passed around from house to house.
“Were you resurrected?" she asked him point blank.
They were sitting up front, so I could not see their eyes. But I imagine they got big.
“I … I don’t know,” they stuttered. “All I know is that I was standing in Wichita one minute and the next minute I was here.”
“What happened to your body?”
“I don't know." They lifted their arms out to each side and looked down at themselves. "I have the same body. Healthier. Stronger. Maybe a little younger. But I look pretty much the same.” He looked up at her and then around at the rest of us. "And, I feel the same, too."
She sat on the desk and swung her feet back and forth. “By the way, my name is Priscilla. And I love to teach.”
And teach us she did. She helped us understand that it is not what our bodies are made of—it is where they are that matters. When our bodies are simultaneously in God and with God, they are transformed.
She told us about Enoch. He was in God--he walked with God for hundreds of years. And then he was with God when God took him. Likewise, Elijah was in God as a faithful prophet and with God when he rode into paradise on a chariot. And the person from Wichita was in God through his radical belief in Jesus Christ. Now they are with God in New Jerusalem, our city in paradise.
And Jesus, King of the Universe, was conceived in God. He was also with God because he is God. That explains why Jesus could do what he did before and after his resurrection—like walk on water.
We sat silently, soaking it all in until Priscilla looked around and met each of us in the eye. “May I ask you all a personal question?”
We all nodded numbly.
“How many of you have had sex since you’ve been here?”
My mouth fell open at the absurdity of such a question. Then it closed because Priscilla was right—I had not, even though the man who had been my husband was living in New Jerusalem, too. I visited him not long ago. I found him working on a 1932 Ford Coup that he had always wanted to build but never got a chance to. He looked so young and virile and even more handsome than when I knew him before. But, unlike our previous life together, I was not aroused by the sight of him. I was just so pleased to see that he was doing what he always wanted to do.
“As I suspected,” she said thoughtfully. “Do you think that is strange?”
Was it strange that our heavenly bodies had no sexual desire? Ever since I arrived, I tried hard to adjust to my new life because so many things were different. Yet many things were still the same. I ate and drank. Walked. Read. Slept. But, no. There was no sexual desire. I never thought it strange until now.
Those sitting below me nodded their heads. I nodded mine, too. And I suppose those behind me nodded theirs.
“Why do you think that is?” she asked.
"We don't need to reproduce in paradise because here, we never die." The voice came from behind me. It was deep in tone, but what was said sounded more like a question than an answer.
Priscilla smiled. "It could be that simple. Why is it not?"
The voice answered, more confident this time, “Sex is more important to some than to others.”
She pursed her lips and shook her index finger at the speaker behind me. “You. You hit the nail on the head,” she said.
Next On Earth as in Heaven
Oh my gosh! Where is this story going? We will both find out when The Beginning of Nations saga continues next week. Don’t miss it!