Your Perfection or Mine?
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1 Corinthians 15:35-44
35. But some one will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" 36. You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39. For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40. There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
This scripture addresses two of the many, many questions I hope to have answered at the resurrection! First: If we’re all created in His image and likeness, why are we all so different than one another? The second: What will our “resurrection bodies” look like? Paul is saying that these are kind of silly questions! We can’t know until it happens, but we won’t even resemble our current shape and form, I’m sure! Will I be beautiful? Tall? Slim? Will I be tan and lean and athletic? Or will I even have a literal, physical form? (I guess you can tell what I long to look like and be like!)
Wayne Dyer, in his book “The Power of Intention” addresses this topic in a round-about way. He believes that we are, indeed all part of the cosmic “eternity” that contains God. Each of us is an eternal being, in a temporary human form. Our time in this form is intended to teach us what we need to know for the next stage of our existence. Christ became flesh and blood to help us understand that. He is God, yet man. He walked the earth as a human, but constantly and deliberately sought out His Father in Heaven—he tapped into eternity in order to live rightly as a human being.
In His resurrection body, Christ still bore the scars of this world—not only physical, but emotional. I don’t know if the memory of our hurts and pain will be eliminated, or if God will have us keep the physical, emotional reminder, but they will not be a burden any more, more like a badge of courage, or a medal of honor. We’ll draw on the experiences to make us “more perfect” for the next stage of our life in heaven.
I really get so excited when I think about heaven! I just cannot imagine how wonderful it will be! One of my friends recently shared how disappointed she was when she read in “The Purpose Driven Life” that, according to Rick Warren, God would reward us for our hard work on earth by giving us even more responsibility when we get to heaven. She said she had always hoped she could just lie around on a cloud all day, and enjoy not having any responsibility! She was quite put out at the thought of working even harder in heaven!
Bottom line is, we don’t really know what to expect! But I do believe it will be so amazing, so much better than anything we can imagine. It will be better than any human experience. It will be perfect and pure and full of a warm, glowing peace. It will be perfection. Will it be the perfection you imagine? Or the perfection I imagine? Will my friend actually be able to lie around on a cloud? Or will she really be put to work the minute she arrives at the “pearly gates?” Who knows! I really want to find out though, so I’m going to try to do and be everything possible to get there!
I hope today you’ll join me is striving to deserve a “resurrection body.” And that you’ll do all you can to deserve eternity in perfection.
Mary
