Life is always changing. At the moment of conception, things begin to change. Life begins to travel forward. A fetus grows. A baby is birthed. A child grows into a toddler. A teenager learns to drive. A young adult marries and has a family. Grandchildren come and so do wrinkles and arthritis.
I find myself watching two people struggling thru yet more times of life’s change. Even as our parents muddle their way thru the changes of their lives, as their children, we struggle with them.
I am so thankful that the last change will be magnificent. “…let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I'll probably never fully understand. We're not all going to die--but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes--it's over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we'll all be changed.” (1 Cor. 15:51-52 The Message)
Paul didn’t have it all figured out so neither do I. But I know it will be glorious and eternal. Changed forever, made to be like Him. Pure, pain free, ageless.
“But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him--and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.” (1John 3: 2-3 The Message)
For now, changing is a fact of life. Ushering us toward final death.
Well….unless death has been swallowed up in victory. “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." (1Cor. 15:54 NIV)
Changing is easier when we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, so “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed--that exhilarating finish in and with God--he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!” (Hebrews 12: 2-3 NIV)
Hallelujah.
