My mother-in-law,Velva Doke, and Bryson,one of her great grandsonsWonder why we're not invisible-
Unshackled by these shells;
Unencumbered by callous flesh,
Delivered from this spell
Of deciding worth by what we see,
Applauding only the skin,
Quickened to the temporary,
Blind to the eternal within...
Yet there must be some wisdom to this wrapping,
For each of us got one at birth;
And even in Heaven we'll get one anew,
So no doubt they must have some worth.
Are they given for our learning-
To struggle with purpose to see
All the way through the flesh to the bones
Down to the you and the me?
To teach our eyes to burn through the husk
To discover God's seed in the heart?
To fight the Foe whose dazzle bewitches
Then leaves us alone in the dark?
I have just returned from the hospital bad of my precious Mother-in-law, whose eighty-eight year-old body is failing her in more ways than her weary lungs have breath to tell. Her shell is so very weak and weary, and, having been sealed with the Holy Spirit of God for the day of her redemption, she would be pleased just to go ahead and trade it in today for the Heavenly one that awaits her; but alas, Her Creator continues to pump blood to and from her heart and bring air in and out of her lungs. She understands exactly what Paul meant when he encouraged the Corinthians about the outward part wasting away while the inward part was being renewed. And she has not lost heart! In all her struggles to generate enough energy to converse and to keep herself from nodding off, she still manages to grip firmly the hands of her children, gaze resolutely and lucidly into our eyes, and tell us with firm determination, "You are not to worry about me. I will be just fine!"
These bodies we were given are certainly not for keeps, and those who realize this and give preference to the nourishment of the inward parts over the outward trappings, can approach the years of "wasting away" with peaceful resolve and even anticipation. The rest of the world stands back and watches curiously: approaching death cheerfully is not natural to the ways of this world. It is other-worldly, supernatural.
Yet, though they will fade, God chose to give us these bodies for a while, and we are to take full advantage of them and use them faithfully as a training ground for Heaven.
A Greek man named Demosthenes wanted more than anything to be the world's greatest orator, so he filled his mouth with rocks and practiced until he could execute every syllable with precision and even eloquence over the impediments. Maybe learning to really see with this limited vision and really move upward against the world's unforgiving gravity is the reason God blessed with us with the frailty of flesh for a few years. For every rock that threatens to kill our hope of living eloquently, God breathes into us His power to overcome. The world knows such eloquence is too much for the flesh and moves in for a closer look. This is true evangelism.
"Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
