Before and After

4-year-old grandboy
before and after

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I've always viewed the universe through a literal mind. When I was three, I asked my mother if I could go play with the neighbor kids. She looked out the window and said, "I don't see any sign of 'em. Maybe they're resting." To which I replied, "Mama, Freddy and Steve never put up a sign when they're resting."

As a student of the Bible, I've viewed Revelation 21:1 ("Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away") literally, believing that today's heaven and earth will on that Day vanish, disappear, be no more. Then God will create a new heaven and earth. 

However, 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells me that on the day Christ saved me, the old Jill was gone, and the new Jill-in-Christ was created.

So, whether the literal translation or the symbolic translation is correct, I don't know. But this I know 100%: Whatever the new heaven and new earth look like, we who belong to Jesus Christ will be with our Lord and Savior forever and ever and evermore. Therefore, beloved, comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 5:17b-18)