Will believers recognize their loved ones in the life to come?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 2000.

That is a very natural question to ask when we have lost loved ones.

Perhaps it will be as if you had a child who had gone to live in Australia, and you did not see them for thirty years. Yet, when they came home, though they would be altered, you would recognize them. They would still be your child, and you their parent.

It is interesting to notice that, when Moses and Elijah appeared with our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration, the apostles, even though they had never seen Moses and Elijah before, gathered from our Lord Jesus that it was Moses and Elijah, and could understand the conversation that passed between them and Christ.

Certainly, there are many things we would like to know about the life to come that are not told to us in Scripture; but we can certainly trust our loved ones to the Lord. If they were believers, they are 'in Christ', and we are 'in Christ'. We have not lost them when they leave the body and go to be with Christ in glory.

We gather from 1 Thessalonians 2:17–20 that Paul was looking forward to recognizing his converts when he should meet them in the Lord's presence at the coming of the Lord.

Yours sincerely in Christ,