Can you have children in heaven?

[ibelongtoyeshua]

I am only nineteen so I still have time to have children but it breaks my heart when I see poor men and women who are incapable of having children due to infertility. Before I continue I would like to pray for those suffering with infertility that they will be helped throughout their struggles and, if God is willing, that they may be healed and have children.

In confession last Saturday, my priest told me “God wants you to have everything that you desire”. Now, having children is a holy desire, to have children is considered a great gift such as when God made the Prophet Abraham, may he be blessed, ‘the father of a great nation’.

Now, I know full well that Jesus said there would be no marriage in heaven but we we know that one day the soul will be reunited with the body. If the soul is to be reunited with the body it stands to reason that we will still bear the elements of our body used for childbearing (the reproductive organs and the breasts, if one is female).

Jesus said that we will be like the angels but in the Old Testament it mentions how angels managed to engage in procreative activity with human beings. This, of course, cannot be dismissed.

We know that the greatest gift one can receive from God is a child, it is the product of love between a man and a woman. Why would God wish to deprive one from being able to have a child in heaven?

The Bible mentions how our pure desires come from him and that such desires will be fulfilled when the time is appropriate. The desire to have a child is pure, so surely God will grant this eventually, even to one who is infertile, if not now in heaven, right?

Please, shed some light on this subject! I’m dying to know.

With love in Christ.

May God protect all unborn children and guide their mothers to keep them protected also!

 

[LeafByNiggle]

I am only nineteen so I still have time to have children but it breaks my heart when I see poor men and women who are incapable of having children due to infertility. Before I continue I would like to pray for those suffering with infertility that they will be helped throughout their struggles and, if God is willing, that they may be healed and have children.

In confession last Saturday, my priest told me “God wants you to have everything that you desire”. Now, having children is a holy desire, to have children is considered a great gift such as when God made the Prophet Abraham, may he be blessed, ‘the father of a great nation’.

Now, I know full well that Jesus said there would be no marriage in heaven but we we know that one day the soul will be reunited with the body. If the soul is to be reunited with the body it stands to reason that we will still bear the elements of our body used for childbearing (the reproductive organs and the breasts, if one is female).

Jesus said that we will be like the angels but in the Old Testament it mentions how angels managed to engage in procreative activity with human beings. This, of course, cannot be dismissed.

We know that the greatest gift one can receive from God is a child, it is the product of love between a man and a woman. Why would God wish to deprive one from being able to have a child in heaven?

The Bible mentions how our pure desires come from him and that such desires will be fulfilled when the time is appropriate. The desire to have a child is pure, so surely God will grant this eventually, even to one who is infertile, if not now in heaven, right?

Please, shed some light on this subject! I’m dying to know.

With love in Christ.

May God protect all unborn children and guide their mothers to keep them protected also!

Greetings. I’m afraid I won’t be able to shed any light on the specific question you asked. But I have a general observation. I have seen many arguments about God that contain somewhere within them, the a question that starts out with “Why would God…”. The intent of such an argument is to make us think “Yea, I don’t know why God would (do such and such). So of course He wouldn’t and therefore…”. You mentioned Abraham. Imagine if Abraham had asked that question when God tested him by asking him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. “Why would God ask me to do such a thing? There obviously must be some mistake. He would not ask that of me.” And yet we know that God blessed Abraham precisely because he did not ask that question, but trusted in God.

Therefore when I am faced with a question that starts out with “Why would God…”, I try to remember Abraham, and the words of scripture “My ways are not your ways, nor are my thoughts your thoughts”. It is why He is God and we are not.

 

[religioussoup]

I am only nineteen so I still have time to have children but it breaks my heart when I see poor men and women who are incapable of having children due to infertility. Before I continue I would like to pray for those suffering with infertility that they will be helped throughout their struggles and, if God is willing, that they may be healed and have children.

In confession last Saturday, my priest told me “God wants you to have everything that you desire”. Now, having children is a holy desire, to have children is considered a great gift such as when God made the Prophet Abraham, may he be blessed, ‘the father of a great nation’.

Now, I know full well that Jesus said there would be no marriage in heaven but we we know that one day the soul will be reunited with the body. If the soul is to be reunited with the body it stands to reason that we will still bear the elements of our body used for childbearing (the reproductive organs and the breasts, if one is female).

Jesus said that we will be like the angels but in the Old Testament it mentions how angels managed to engage in procreative activity with human beings. This, of course, cannot be dismissed.

We know that the greatest gift one can receive from God is a child, it is the product of love between a man and a woman. Why would God wish to deprive one from being able to have a child in heaven?

The Bible mentions how our pure desires come from him and that such desires will be fulfilled when the time is appropriate. The desire to have a child is pure, so surely God will grant this eventually, even to one who is infertile, if not now in heaven, right?

Please, shed some light on this subject! I’m dying to know.

With love in Christ.

May God protect all unborn children and guide their mothers to keep them protected also!

Personally, I do not believe that couples have children in heaven. I don’t know, I just have never believed that. I’m not saying that they don’t, because who knows? I think that all aborted/miscarried children will be there, but no “new” children.

That’s just what I believe.

 

[revert_jen]

We know that the greatest gift one can receive from God is a child, it is the product of love between a man and a woman. Why would God wish to deprive one from being able to have a child in heaven?

Actually, the greatest gift God can give us is Himself, and we will be in His presence in Heaven, and won’t be able to feel anything lacking.

Also, my understanding is that the distinction between biological children and spiritual children (those to whom you acted in parental ways or helped lead in their journey toward God) will be different in Heaven than here, with spiritual children being more acknowledged, because here you don’t always know.

I’m not an expert, but I don’t think that people will have biological children in heaven after we are reunited with our bodies, because then those children wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience time and the world, which other children get to (even if they never get to experience the world outside the womb, because of our fallenness).

I say this as a single (divorced/annuled) woman much older than you, with no children. I always wanted children but it is now unlikely (but not impossible) that I ever will have any. It’s not a fertility problem, but a bad choice in marriage when I was younger and just general life circumstances. I trust God that even if I can’t have what I always wanted on earth, He will give me something better in Heaven–Himself, who is Goodness.

May God bless you for worrying about it. It shows a very warm and loving heart. I pray that God will give you what you want, both in this life and the next.

–Jen

 

[Farley4334]

“God wants you to have everything that you desire”.

God wants to give us all that is best for us, but often, out of our fallen-ness we desire things that are not good for us. God does not want us to have those things. This statement from the priest is too oversimplified.

Now, I know full well that Jesus said there would be no marriage in heaven but we we know that one day the soul will be reunited with the body. If the soul is to be reunited with the body it stands to reason that we will still bear the elements of our body used for childbearing (the reproductive organs and the breasts, if one is female).

True. Although it is a glorified body, so it will be different (people didn’t recognize Jesus at first), but still, probably true.

but in the Old Testament it mentions how angels managed to engage in procreative activity with human beings. This, of course, cannot be dismissed.

False. Angels did not procreate with humans. What sometimes has been translated angels in Genesis 6, is more accurately translated “sons of God”. “Sons of God” were the righteous descendants of Seth. The “daughters of man” were the descendants of the line of Cain. It was these two human ancestral lines that procreated, not angels and mankind.

We know that the greatest gift one can receive from God is a child

The greatest gift one can receive from God is Himself.

We have to trust in God’s divine plan. All our holy desires will find fulfillment in heaven, but not necessarily in the way we envision them. There will be no procreation in heaven. This universe is the breeding ground; Heaven is the homeland. There will be no more souls created after the end of the world.

 

[kkollwitz]

Interesting, considering the first commandment from sinless Eden is “be fruitful and multiply.”

 

[Gliggle]

it is not God’s will that everyone have children.

People get caught up in the modern myth that having a child will complete them.

Only God will complete them. Not even a child will do this.

 

[Muzhik]

No, we will not procreate in heaven. While it may be possible, it is not something that people in heaven will do.

In a sense you already answered your own question. In heaven there will be no marriage. The purpose of marriage is to build a stable, solid foundation for the procreation and raising of children. Since there is no marriage, there is no creation of that foundation. The reason there ISN’T marriage in heaven is because there will be no children being procreated.

You can find a lot of this in the Summa Theologica. You can also check out Peter Kreeft’s “Fourteen Questions About Heaven” and scroll down to #8: What will we possess in heaven? Raising a child is a form of possession – you must have control of a child in order to educate and discipline him or her.

Hope this helps.

 

[thistle]

I am only nineteen so I still have time to have children but it breaks my heart when I see poor men and women who are incapable of having children due to infertility. Before I continue I would like to pray for those suffering with infertility that they will be helped throughout their struggles and, if God is willing, that they may be healed and have children.

In confession last Saturday, my priest told me “God wants you to have everything that you desire”. Now, having children is a holy desire, to have children is considered a great gift such as when God made the Prophet Abraham, may he be blessed, ‘the father of a great nation’.

Now, I know full well that Jesus said there would be no marriage in heaven but we we know that one day the soul will be reunited with the body. If the soul is to be reunited with the body it stands to reason that we will still bear the elements of our body used for childbearing (the reproductive organs and the breasts, if one is female).

Jesus said that we will be like the angels but in the Old Testament it mentions how angels managed to engage in procreative activity with human beings. This, of course, cannot be dismissed.

We know that the greatest gift one can receive from God is a child, it is the product of love between a man and a woman. Why would God wish to deprive one from being able to have a child in heaven?

The Bible mentions how our pure desires come from him and that such desires will be fulfilled when the time is appropriate. The desire to have a child is pure, so surely God will grant this eventually, even to one who is infertile, if not now in heaven, right?

Please, shed some light on this subject! I’m dying to know.

With love in Christ.

May God protect all unborn children and guide their mothers to keep them protected also!

There is no sex in Heaven.

 

[Todd977]

Here on earth, having children is indeed a great blessing. However, since marriage is the proper setting to have children and Jesus said, in the resurrection, people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels, I don’t think we will be having children in heaven.

 

[Blue_Horizon]

I find it interesting that in Marian apparitions of our Lady that the baby Jesus appears the Seers are more overecome by the presence of Mary than that of her Son (hence Marian apparition rather than a Jesus Apparition).

Apparantly the presence of Jesus is far more powerful than that of his mother when they appear to visionaries separately.

This has often lead me to wonder whether the child Jesus who appears with Mary is somehow more of a projection/incarnation of her own proper memories/history as it were - just like the clothing she appears in which changes according to her wishes.

This further leads me to wonder that in heaven our glorified bodies may have such subtility and control over time and matter with God’s grace that we may be able to reclaim and relive our past history in God - even those lost possibilities we all have - in this new heaven and new earth.

So if we will be a bit unhappy in heaven without our pet goldfish or a child we could never have…then heaven must somehow be able to provide for that loss - otherwise we would not be in heaven would we .

I don’t think this pure speculation is intrinsically impossible nor contradicts Catholic Doctrine. Unless someone can point out difficulties I tend to think it is quite congruent with what we do know about heaven (which isn’t much).

 

[Mintaka]

Actually, that’s not true about Marian apparitions and Baby Jesus. Usually what happens is that people have a fair amount to say about seeing saints, but are struck dumb when it comes to describing Jesus. There isn’t much they can say except that He was so sweet and wonderful they can’t tell you, or so sorrowful they can’t tell you, etc.

Now, there are some saints who focus more on Jesus and can manage to ask Him questions, etc., but they are usually more advanced in the spiritual life than the average visionary on the street. And they are usually adding a lot of details and thoughts from decades of “pondering upon these things” in their hearts, because when they first saw Jesus they were also struck dumb. Usually Jesus has to prompt them a ton of times.

St. Catherine of Siena or Julian of Norwich are good examples of saints who chat a lot with Jesus.

So yes, people have a lot more to say about Mary than Jesus, because Mary isn’t God. Mary is amazing and neat, but she is also somebody’s mom. She doesn’t inspire awe and fear of the Lord, or the urge to do nothing but worship and adore forever and ever. She doesn’t make you fall on your face. She isn’t going to send you off into a religious ecstasy that makes you write deathless classical Spanish poetry. She’s a human being only, even if she’s a sinless human being in a resurrection body.

 

[Blue_Horizon]

Actually, that’s not true about Marian apparitions and Baby Jesus.

Do you mean for every single one or just some of them…
Can you provide the text from some examples that demonstrate your observations?

Now, there are some saints who focus more on Jesus and can manage to ask Him questions, etc.,

I don’t understand . In which approved Marian apparitions did baby Jesus talk and answer questions?

St. Catherine of Siena or Julian of Norwich are good examples of saints who chat a lot with Jesus.

OK, but I am talking about Marian apparitions with the baby Jesus. These examples are not the same are they?

 

[TimothyH]

There is no sex in Heaven.

That’s right, and certainly not after the resurrection.

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Matthew 22:30)

No marriage, no sex. No sex, no kids. Better get started now if you want children.

-Tim-

 

[Frankenfurter]

It’s a wonderful question. Contemplation of this question is likely to be full of great spiritual profit. Young people like you are a bit of heaven on earth and I thank you for putting the question out there for us to contemplate and gain from.

One of the reasons that having children is such a powerful and joyful thing is that it allows us to actually be a part of God’s creative power and process. God is so generous that he allows us to share and be apart of the process of creation. And, since he has made us for that purpose, it is one of our greatest, natural joys.

With that, I can assume that in heaven we continue to be part of God’s creative purpose. That must mean that indeed we can have children, or perhaps even take part in creation in an even more profound way.

God himself WAS a human child. That can be contemplated along with your question. Becoming a child was indeed a great joy for God. So God has given us the ability to share in his creative process, and he has even allowed one (Mary) to share in the direct creative process of giving birth and raising God himself.

God seems to be so generous with his allowing us to be a part of his creative process that it seems unimaginable that he does not continue to allow us to share in that creative process in heaven.