Swallowed up by life
For the marriage of the Lamb has come,
And the bride has made herself ready. Revelation 19:7
Read 2 Corinthians 5:1—8
It is only days from Christmas Day, and from thoughts of family, and I do not want to lose the earthiness of it. The Word became flesh. He lived among us.[1] He tented it here. He put on my mortality. He put on full earthy existence. Now I am asked to receive from him the heavenliness of it. To be swallowed up in eternal life, to be further clothed, to put on immortality, and to not merely tent it but to prepare to inhabit a dwelling of real substance. I have got used to thinking of these days as holiday days, days that are so real. To be earthy has been to be real. Now I have to see everything as fleeting, passing, as this year is soon to pass. The heavenly life is the life won for me by Jesus’ resurrection body. His coming in my flesh is a promise to me that I will be clothed in his yet more substantial reality. His earthly existence promises my heavenly existence.
Father, who was in the beginning with the Word in the Spirit, I thank you that it is your Word who took my flesh. Thank you for your profound earthiness. I meet you in the Son and I meet the Son when I eat the bread and drink the wine. Thank you that he took my mortality, my fleeting, passing, decaying nature, my sinful nature which may not live eternally. He took it to its conclusion in death. Thank you for his resurrection body, fit for eternal life, and his promise of it to me. You have freed me to hold onto this promise. You have freed me to hold very lightly to what passes away. You offer me a truer perspective on what to hold, what to release, what to care about and what to shrug off. Let me live tomorrow for what has eternal substance.
[1] John 1:14