Re: Will We Know Our Loved Ones in Heaven? (an article)
Question: "Will we be able to see and know our friends and family members in Heaven?"
Many people say that the first thing they want to do when they arrive in heaven is see all their friends and loved ones who have passed on before them. In eternity, there will be plenty of time to see, know, and spend time with our friends and family members. However, that will not be our primary focus in heaven. We will be far more occupied with worshipping God and enjoying the wonders of Heaven. Our reunions with loved ones are more likely to be filled with recounting the grace and glory of God in our lives, His wondrous love, and His mighty works. We will rejoice all the more because we can praise and worship the Lord in the company of other believers, especially those we loved on earth.
What does the Bible say about whether we will be able to recognize people in the afterlife? King Saul recognized Samuel when the witch of Endor summoned Samuel from the realm of the dead (1 Samuel 28:8-17). When David’s infant son died, David declared, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23). David assumed that he would be able to recognize his son in heaven, despite the fact that he died as a baby. In Luke 16:19-31, Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man were all recognizable after death. At the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah were recognizable (Matthew 17:3-4). In these examples, the Bible does seem to indicate that we will be recognizable after death.
The Bible declares that when we arrive in heaven, we will “be like him [Jesus]; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Just as our earthly bodies were of the first man Adam, so will our resurrection bodies be just like Christ’s (1 Corinthians 15:47). “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:49, 53). Many people recognized Jesus after His resurrection (John 20:16, 20; 21:12; 1 Corinthians 15:4-7). If Jesus was recognizable in His glorified body, we also will be recognizable in our glorified bodies. Being able to see our loved ones is a glorious aspect of heaven, but heaven is far more about God, and far less about us. What a pleasure it will be to be reunited with our loved ones and worship.
Question: "Will we have physical bodies in Heaven?"
Although the Bible tells us little about what it will be like in heaven, it seems that we will most likely have a physical body, although not in the same sense of “physical” that we have now. First Corinthians 15:52 says that "the dead will be raised incorruptible" and that those who are alive at the time of Christ's return for His saints "shall be changed." Jesus Christ is "the first fruits" of those who have died (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23). This means that He set the example and leads the way. First Corinthians 15:42 says that our
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"body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption." In a precursor to the believers’ resurrection, some were raised at the time of Christ's resurrection in Matthew 27:52 where it says that their "bodies...were raised." Thomas, in John 20:27, physically touched the body of Christ following His resurrection, so He obviously had a body that was solid. If our bodies were deformed at the time of our death, these deformaties will not follow our bodies into Heaven.
We can expect that all believers’ resurrection will be like that of Christ's. What a wonderful truth! The Bible is not specific, but it seems that we will be able to eat. John, in Revelation 22:2, writes of his vision of the eternal state where he saw that "in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month." This seems to be a reversal of the Genesis 3 punishment where Adam and Eve, and hence all of mankind, were banned from eating from this tree. As for hunger, it appears that there won't be any. Isaiah 49:10 says that there will be no hunger or thirst in the millennial kingdom. This is speaking of mortal men during that period, not of translated saints, but by extension it can be said that if mortals on earth during Christ's Kingdom do not hunger, then surely there will be no hunger in heaven (see also Revelation 7:14-16).
Finally, Job wrote that he knew for sure that even after he dies and his skin is long gone, that "in my FLESH I shall SEE God" (Job 19:25 - all caps added for emphasis). So that means our bodies will consist of some kind of glorified flesh. Whatever form we have, we know that it will be perfect, sinless and flawless.
It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:42).
For this corruptible must put on incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:53).
Corruptible bodies will be subject to death and decay. But if we are to have bodies in Heaven, we must have bodies that are free from corruption, the kind of body that Christ will give us when He comes. It was buried in corruption, but it will be raised in incorruption. We have some idea of an incorruptible body. The scene on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah both appeared with Christ. Moses had died fifteen hundred years before. Yet he was there recognizable in a glorious body. Elijah had been caught up to Heaven without dying about nine hundred years before, and he too was there in a glorified body. Our resurrection will clothe us with bodies where disease and sickness will never enter. No pain, no weakness, no fever will touch our resurrection bodies. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
In heaven, the inhabitants are not the same age as when they died. Adults appear to be at the most robust age (we might say on earth that they are 25-30 years of age). No sickness, no disease, no birth defects show in heaven, the body you have there is perfect. You do see children there, the ones who died at a young age, in childbirth, or were aborted. They have a heavenly body of the same age as when they died. As they are educated in the Word of God, heavenly music, and loving care, they grow up in maturity. So let's say that a woman had a girl-child on earth die at the time she was born. If the woman lived a long life on earth, she would arrive in heaven greeted by the daughter who died at birth. Only, the daughter would be a young woman, grown up spiritually in heaven. The mother would still recognize her daughter who had died at birth on earth.
Family is important in heaven and the family members you knew on earth, would still have great bonds of love in heaven. You will be able to know your descendants back through the ages to Noah and his family, and back even further to Adam and Eve. It's likely that as you arrive in heaven, people who had known you on earth will gather to greet you. Family members, relatives, friends, co-workers, fellow church members and the like will know you in a special way in heaven. You can even choose to live near those you knew on earth. However, there is none of the tribalism so prevalent on earth, in heaven. You will know that all the inhabitants of heaven as your brothers and sisters in Jesus our Messiah, and fellow sons and daughters of God our Father. It will be more grand in heaven than you ever dreamed could be possible.
Do not be misled: But someone may ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’ {36} How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. {37} When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. {38} But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. {39} All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. {40} There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. {41} The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
(42} So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; {43} it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; {44} it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. {49} And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven."
Is the dismembered child, gone? Just a spirit floating around somewhere in this universe? Really? The Apostle Paul opens up the great Biblical mystery that after death, all people, saints and sinners, will be given a heavenly type body, like unto the body Jesus assumed after his resurrection. So even though your child may have been miscarried or aborted, we are told from God’s word that that child will have a new body like unto Jesus’ body. The God who instilled within you and me a complex genetic code, is able to revive that code someway and put it into a body that you and I will instantly recognize.
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YBIC,
SeanTom
Christians are not perfect, but are forgiven by one who is.. If you think you are perfect, try walking on water. 
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