Borders, DeKalb, IL

It's a Friday night and I'm home alone for the weekend.  Robyn is out of town with some family and I'm flying solo.  As lonely as these kind of days can be, I find it to be a good time of catching up on work or piles of stuff I want to accomplish.

So I'm here at Borders, enjoying a wonderful Herb & Cream Cheese Bagel and Large Iced Tea.  I think it's dinner.  The "Seattle's Best" in the store is full of people, but it's never been this quiet.  There are at least three or four conversations going on, but I can't overhear or evesdrop in a single one.  Occasionally you hear a spark of laughter -- which seems to be universal despite what language you speak.

It's fascinating, really, to watch a group of deaf people "talk".  Using sign language, of course.  And it makes me wonder - will deaf people talk in heaven?  While I know we'll have new bodies in heaven (1 Cor. 15), I don't all know what that means specifically.  Will this group of nine people I'm watching (and trying not to stare at) carry on conversations like this there?  Will they praise God day and night with spoken word?  Or will it be like it is here? 

I look forward to the day when all my ailments and sicknesses are healed.  Some of us might think of deafness as an ailment needing healing.  But I don't know if these people do.  So, will that be healed and they'll talk?  Or will it remain and they'll continue to sign?  (For that matter, will we praise God in our native tongue?) 

I'm not an expert on heaven or the end times.  I'm just an average guy in an average store, looking at a group of average people carrying on what seems to be an average conversation.  I just wonder what it will be like there - for me, and for these folks.  I guess all I can be sure of is that it'll be wonderful -- beautiful in such a way only our Creator can make.  

I look forward to that.