One of the truly great things about the Christian faith is the hope of living forever in the presence of God. But one of the most depressing thoughts, and one that sometimes comes right after the first, is that there are so many people we may never see again—people we have loved, lost, people we have cherished, spent most of our lives with. And now they’re gone and sometimes we fear we may never see them again. It occurred to me when preparing this sermon that God himself may also experience this same longing—to see people again that he has seen before. Job thought so when he wrote:
If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. You shall call, and I will answer you: you will have a desire to the work of your hands.
This is a surprisingly deep theological statement that Job makes here. Not only does it suggest a resurrection, it speaks of an unfinished work: you will have a desire to the work of your hands.
It suggests that all of us, even the best of us (and Job is listed in the Bible as among the best that had ever been), are at our death an unfinished work. This is really surprising to me, but surprising as it is logical—because, at the resurrection, we are not all that we will become.