The other day I threw out my back getting into my car. Not lifting a couch or playing basketball. Getting into my car. My back locked up, and I couldn’t get out without a couple of people helping me. If you’re wondering how old I am, I’m at that age where you randomly hurt yourself doing routine daily tasks. Sneezing is now a risk. Putting on socks is a gamble.
Lying there, trying to figure out how to move without setting off another wave of pain, I got a good reminder of just how fragile these bodies are. We spend a lot of years assuming they’ll keep up with us. Then one ordinary Thursday, they don’t. Knees creak. Backs lock. Eyes need glasses. Every one of us is aging, and no amount of vitamins or stretching changes the direction we’re headed.
But somewhere in the middle of that recovery, something unexpected happened. Instead of
getting discouraged, I started getting excited. Because the Bible doesn’t treat our aging bodies as the end of the story. Paul says our current bodies are like tents, temporary and a little worn out, and that God has something better waiting. He writes, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
That is not wishful thinking. It’s a promise. And Paul gets even more specific about what’s
coming. “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” (1 Corinthians 15:42-43).
Think about that for a second. No more pulled muscles. No more chronic pain. No more bodies that wear out, get sick, or let us down. Our resurrection bodies will be the real thing, the way God always intended them to be. Jesus walked out of the tomb in a body that was genuinely His own, yet gloriously new, and Scripture says that is our future too.
So this week, if your body is reminding you of its limits, I hope you can hold that with a little
humor and a lot of hope. The aches are real, and it’s okay to be honest about them. But they aren’t the final chapter. “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21).
I’ll be honest, I’m looking forward to that day more than I ever have. In the meantime, I’ll be
getting into my car very, very carefully.
peace,
Nick
Lying there, trying to figure out how to move without setting off another wave of pain, I got a good reminder of just how fragile these bodies are. We spend a lot of years assuming they’ll keep up with us. Then one ordinary Thursday, they don’t. Knees creak. Backs lock. Eyes need glasses. Every one of us is aging, and no amount of vitamins or stretching changes the direction we’re headed.
But somewhere in the middle of that recovery, something unexpected happened. Instead of
getting discouraged, I started getting excited. Because the Bible doesn’t treat our aging bodies as the end of the story. Paul says our current bodies are like tents, temporary and a little worn out, and that God has something better waiting. He writes, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
That is not wishful thinking. It’s a promise. And Paul gets even more specific about what’s
coming. “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” (1 Corinthians 15:42-43).
Think about that for a second. No more pulled muscles. No more chronic pain. No more bodies that wear out, get sick, or let us down. Our resurrection bodies will be the real thing, the way God always intended them to be. Jesus walked out of the tomb in a body that was genuinely His own, yet gloriously new, and Scripture says that is our future too.
So this week, if your body is reminding you of its limits, I hope you can hold that with a little
humor and a lot of hope. The aches are real, and it’s okay to be honest about them. But they aren’t the final chapter. “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21).
I’ll be honest, I’m looking forward to that day more than I ever have. In the meantime, I’ll be
getting into my car very, very carefully.
peace,
Nick