Today is Wednesday, June 9th, 2004; Karen's Korner #308

For my birthday last month, several of my friends gave me the book, "Traveling Light" by Max Lucado. He takes apart the 23rd Psalm with each chapter talking about a portion of it. You know it, "the Lord is my shepherd.......he leads....he lets me rest.......he restores........."

 

Chapter #15 talks about the last verse (6):  "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

 

Here is what Max writes on page 155. Maybe it is because it was my birthday; and maybe its because my friends and I are getting older (aren't we all??), I thought it was especially good:

 

"Aging. It's no fun. The way we try to avoid it, you'd think we could. We paint the body, preserve the body, protect the body. And well we should. These bodies are God's gifts. We should be responsible. But we should also be realistic. This body must die so the new body can live.  "Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God. Something that will ruin cannot have a part in something that never ruins."  (I Corinthians 15:50)

 

Aging is God's idea. It's one of the ways he keeps us headed homeward. We can't change the process, but we can change our attitude. Here is a thought. What if we looked at the aging body as we look at the growth of a tulip?

 

Do you ever see anyone mourning over the passing of the tulip bulb? Do gardeners weep as the bulb begins to weaken? Of course not. We don't purchase tulip girdles or petal wrinkle cream or consult plastic-leaf surgeons. We don't mourn the passing of the bulb; we celebrate it. Tulip lovers rejoice the minute the bulb weakens. "Watch that one," they say. "It's about to blossom."

 

Could it be heaven does the same? The angels point to our bodies. The more frail we become, the more excited they become. "Watch that lady in the hospital," they say. "She's about to blossom."  "Keep an eye on the fellow with the bad heart. He'll be coming home soon."

 

"We are waiting for God to finish making us his own children, which means our bodies will be made free" (Romans 8:23).

 

Are our bodies now free? No. Paul describes them as our "earthly bodies" (Philippians 3:21)


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