Sown perishable, raised in glory
The valleys deck themselves with grain;
They shout and sing together for joy. Psalm 65:13
Read 1 Corinthians 15:35—43
This is a fair question for me to consider as I come to the end of the day. I may soon be down to sleep. All my life I have slept and risen, slept and risen to a new day. But the great sleep of death — I have not been there yet. What will I rise as? Christ has been there before me and for me. He was raised glorious. That is what I am promised in him. Glory. Not less real than I am now, but more real. So this body I am soon to put down to bed, I am given a way to see it. I am a seed. To be laid down, and eventually laid aside. It’s a good way to see myself because it gives me a sense that I am brimming with an eager potential, ready to burst into life. I am not bound for the scrap-heap but the garden.
Living God, you are the Lord over life and the victor over death. In Jesus’ resurrection, the first-born of all humanity, you have taken death itself to the grave. I cannot say that I look forward to my dying, but I can say, and pray it to be true, that I look forward to my rising, to being clothed with life, clothed with glory. This life I now live you have given to be the seed of so much more that I can only hope for, long for and trust you for.