4/29/21

 Raised with New Bodies

             What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

     The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

            Paul’s words sound like they are taken straight out of a science fiction novel.  One moment we will be going through our daily routine, minding our own business.  Then a trumpet will sound, the dead will rise and our bodies will be transformed into their eternal state.  No long process; no piece by piece accumulation of all the correct materials…in the blink of an eye everything will change.  Life in a wheelchair?  Over.  Scattered thoughts and the inability to speak?  Gone.  The ravages of old age?  Only a memory.  The knowledge that our end is coming and death is an inevitability?  Forever wiped away.  All of us will be made new and perfect, ready to meet our Creator and ready to begin our true life without the boundaries that these bodies have imposed upon us for these long years.

            When I was a freshman in High School, I developed tendonitis in both of my shoulders and both of my knees.  My doctors and coaches said that there was nothing much to be done other than rest and some basic therapy.  Rest was not really in my vocabulary at that point of my life so I pressed through, fighting through the pain and ending each day wrapped in ice packs.  When I graduated I decided that I would get out of competitive athletics until I was pain free.  The doctors said I just needed to rest my body and then the constant barrage of intense shooting pain would subside.

            They did not say that it would take 15 years.

            It was in my early 30s when I was finally pain free.  My teens and twenties were spent fighting my body as it screamed for me to stop and I screamed back that there were things that I had to do.  I would look at our clients at the IDD center and see the daily struggle that they had with their own bodies.  I would see arms and legs that did not do what our clients wanted.  I would see damaged brains that betrayed sharp minds.  I would see grown men and women who could only function at a pre-school level because their bodies were broken.  I saw seizures humble fully grown adults.

            I also saw these same men and women refuse to give up.  It is a difficult thing when your greatest enemy is the body that you live in…when you feel that you have been betrayed and attacked by you.  When the one who is causing you pain and confusion is your own flesh and blood, who do you get mad at?  How do you defend yourself?  How do you get up in the morning knowing that this body will actively work to defeat you throughout your day?  Still, they persevered.  Every single day.

            One day, not too far from now, the struggle will be over.  The trumpet will sound and in the blink of an eye, IDD will be no more.  Lives that have been defined by pain and loss and struggle will instantly be free to live in their new reality as perfect children of God.  Legs that have been confined to wheelchairs and braces will run at full speed.  Mouths that could not articulate words will be singing and shouting.  The perfection that your children were created for will be a reality and their laughter will echo through the heavens. 

            One day…not too far from now.

             

A moment to reflect:

Live today in hope.  Whenever you look at your child, imagine them running free and whole in new bodies.