A fuller understanding of what it means to be a first article creature defines and transfixes are ultimate hope; what are we ultimately hoping and waiting for?

We are praying, hoping and waiting for the full and complete restoration of our creature-liness.  That is to say death and our "going to be with Jesus" or "going to heaven" is CERTAINLY NOT our ultimate hope nor is it our full and complete restoration as a first article creature. 

Creature-liness is the togetherness of body and soul.  Death, a consequence of sin, rips those two apart.  A body without a soul we call-- dead.  A disembodied soul; although living, is far from being whole, even as it is resting in the presence of Jesus. 

As in the beginning, humans- God-created creatures, whose lives were the consummation of mud and God's breathing life thus creating a living being, your ultimate hope is to be found is the joining together again of your body with your soul-- to be really human again-- right with God and right with everyone else resurrected to life everlasting.

Our full restoration of creatureliness will entail being what we were created to be, not our soul rising to be with Jesus, but rather living creatures- people, with whom the descent of the new Jerusalem and God making his dwelling among us resurrected and restored (body and soul rejoined) creatures will be definitive. Even more so on the new earth than in the new heaven.