Today’s blog is excerpted from my book Heaven for Kids. It was a blast writing it—one of the things I loved doing was including a bunch of material from The Chronicles of Narnia, more than was in the big Heaven book. And by the way, if my big Heaven book seems too heavy for you, or if 50 Days of Heaven is too devotional, consider this: there’s a church in Florida in which the men’s ministry read and studied Heaven for Kids!
Clothes are important to us. What do you like to wear? Jeans? Shorts? Anything and everything as long as it’s blue?
Because Adam and Eve were naked without being embarrassed before they disobeyed God, some people say we won’t need to wear clothes in Heaven. Before you freak out, there’s good news. Even prior to the final resurrection, which will happen at the time of Jesus’ return to Earth, people are already described as wearing clothes— white robes that show purity, thanks to Jesus (Revelation 3:4; 6:11). Even the risen Jesus is described as wearing a robe in Heaven. So it appears we’ll wear clothes—not because there will be shame or temptation, but maybe because they will improve our appearance and comfort.
Wearing robes might seem kind of funny to us, unless we’re in a Christmas play. But to first-century people, anything but robes would seem strange, because that’s what they wore most of the time. So that’s probably what they’ll wear in Heaven.
We can imagine ourselves dressed in Heaven the way people in our culture dress on Earth. Does that mean some people will wear jeans and T-shirts, while others will wear dressier clothes? Why not? Just as we wear different clothes for different occasions here, we may do the same on the New Earth.
White is the color most often associated with clothing in Heaven. The white clothes may show our status with God (Revelation 7:9), just as they showed Jesus’ relationship to God during His experience on top of a mountain (Matthew 17). The emphasis on white may also relate to being clean.
Surprisingly, the only person described in Heaven as wearing a robe that isn’t white is Jesus: “He wore a robe dipped in blood” (Revelation 19:13). This likely isn’t actual blood but a red robe that’s a symbol of Jesus’ dying for all the bad things we’ve done.
Seven angels are described as wearing golden sashes (Revelation 15:6). Because many people from different countries wear colorful clothing, we should expect them to do this in Heaven, too. We’ll talk more later about how resurrected people will keep their national heritages.
The book of Revelation tells us we’ll be priests, kings, and queens in Heaven. God designed special clothes for the priests in Old Testament times (Exodus 28:3-43). So it’s likely that as God’s royal children we will wear a variety of beautiful clothes as we rule the earth under the direction of Jesus, the King of kings.
Photo by Janko Ferlič - @specialdaddy on Unsplash
