I’ve heard it said that a husband and wife won’t know each other in heaven because we’ll be new creatures. Also it’s said that they won’t know each other because they won’t remember anything of the old world. That belief is based on Isaiah 65: 17. “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.” I don’t believe the assertion that spouses won’t know each other.

When I read Isaiah 65: 17, I recall Revelation 21: 4. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” That means, to me, that the Isaiah passage is talking about painful memories; not  necessarily the remembrance of people themselves.

As for being new creatures, that’ll be in terms of having glorified bodies. We’ll be as Christ is, having enhanced abilities. Of course, perception will be one of those. We’ll be able to see, recognize, and understand more clearly than ever before. Here’s scripture that supports this claim. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13: 12. Of course, this recognition applies not just to spouses, but to all we know who make it to heaven.

The one thing in all this that I’m not sure about is whether the spouses remain married in heaven. It seems to me that God designed marriage so that the two would be complete as one, and also that the world would be filled. In heaven and on the new earth, the oneness of husband and wife may be usurped by the fact that we’ll all be one with God. And in terms of the earth being full, the number of the saved will have been finally reached. That means there probably won’t be a need for more people to be born.

So while I’m unsure about the continuance of earthly marriages in heaven; if I’m correctly reading scripture, it seems certain that there won’t be any new marriages taking place there. Matthew 22: 30 says, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to attain that age [of being in heaven], and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage.'”