The Role of the Saints in the Resurrection

Is life after death simply a kind of blissful rest or sleep if this is the case what does one make of the fairly early christian belief in the in the resurrection if you like. The bodily assumption of blessed virgin mary and the active participation of the saints in our life here thank you that's a whole other i was going to say can of worms far be intermediate said yeah rather inappropriate metaphor at that point  the condition of those who are asleep in christ asleep is a metaphor because it doesn't mean unconsciousness so that when paul says we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed and so on i think he is referring to a conscious resting.