More Children in the Kingdom: Yes or No?

A letter from a reader, and I ask one simple question:

What would you say?

Dear Dr. McKnight:

Apologies for this uninvited invasion of your inbox, in what is almost certainly considerable volume.
I’m writing as a committed Christian and seminary grad, about a topic I’ve been pondering and which I find troubling.
There is no need to answer this question individually, nor would I presume to suggest it’s a topic you must write a blog post on.
It’s just one that I don’t see addressed much, and it’s one that at times troubles me to the degree that it almost constitutes a real challenge to my faith.
And I’m not some shavetail pup out of seminary – I’m about the same age as you.

The topic I’d like to see discussed is the issue of life in the resurrection.  Christ himself in Luke 20 seems to describe an eschaton in which no new children are born.  Certainly the resurrection life is different in quality than the one we experience now – we will be changed and glorified.  This I understand (and my middle-aged joints and various other signs of my own mortality make me long for a resurrection).  If my understanding is correct, the new creation in which heaven and earth are brought together and God dwells with man will be a place of bliss, creativity, and happiness.

But I really find the idea of no new life – no children – frightening and abhorrent.  As glorious as eternal life will be, and I am certain that it will be beyond my current ability to understand, we as created beings have a beginning and are time-bound, and even if we do not age or decline, the resurrection life will still be one of the same people growing older and older forever and ever, and unless I am mistaken, there are no new children born.  The eternal life that will exist will be ever-new – I understand.  But I still find the idea of no children born, forever and ever, only adults – an idea that is really deeply disturbing.  I don’t like it – and I feel like a traitor to my faith when I examine my inner feelings and find that the idea of eternity with no children so disturbing that I want no part of it.

Perhaps I think too much and simply need to trust that God will make things okay.  That’s what I’m relying on.  But I would like to see some thoughtful engagement of this aspect of the resurrection.  I don’t see a lot right now; eschatological discussion now seems to be predominated by polemics (my eschatological school is more orthodox and correct than yours) or simply spouting a party line.  Not much investigation that draws upon the wisdom of the many streams of orthodox theology (small o) from the historic community of faith.

Perhaps it might be intriguing enough to blog about.  If not, it costs nothing to hit the delete key, does it?
Thanks for taking the time to read this note.  I appreciate your writing.

Respectfully yours,