Throughout my adult life I continued to remind my dentists that I didn’t want to spend fortunes saving these teeth because, “Someday I want the teeth of my dreams!” Early this year I finally got them. I love how they look and “work” but now I’ve got a gum inflammation that defies any cure. It seems I’ve got a sensitivity to the new metal plate. How exasperating!
I am reminded that this mortal shell is wearing out. Bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes have left their mark upon my aging body. Almost perfect at birth, it’s been a downhill slide ever since then! In addition, fifteen surgeries have scarred my flesh like a road map to the grave! Over the years a parade of surgeons have removed a number of organs or parts thereof. How much longer can this go on?
“But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.” 1 Cor. 15:35-38
“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” 1Co 15:42-50
One of our older church ladies has just endured major abdominal surgery. My heart goes out to her. I’ve been under the knife so many times myself that I can well imagine how much pain she’s having. It will be a long recovery for her. But our hope is not centered on this long-suffering flesh…
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 1Co 15:51-55
Love as always, Elaine (shedding this perishable a piece at a time)
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