While reciting the Apostle’s Creed recently, I was struck in a new way by the part that says, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” It was the resurrection of the body that got me. Bodies seem to be breaking down all around me.
The mile marker of age 40 is further and further in the rearview mirror, the same mirror that reflects my aging self.
A reminder of this occurred the other day. One of my kids was plucking at the veins on the back of my hands. Then my daughter said, “You are not too wrinkly, Mommy, just a bit.” Despite the promise of the hand cream I just bought, there is no going back to the glow of youth.
But these signs of my aging are small, compared to the challenges others around me are facing. Just yesterday, I sat white-knuckling my coffee, as I fought to keep my emotions and my mouth in check. A friend told me her brain is covered by lesions. Not yet 40, she described to me the long, slow slide toward the loss of mental and physical capacity that looms in front of her.
Naturally, I wanted to jump into action and fix everything. “Are you resting,” I asked… “Eating well? What if you just take a break and I pick up all your carpool shifts?” And then I realized how foolish I was being to think I could cure a debilitating disease with a casserole and the sheer force of my love.
This is when I need the promise of Easter. Not just salvation, purchased for each of us at such great cost, but also the guarantee of a resurrected body. Jesus knew I would need that promise to console me. I think that may be why He intentionally showed us what His glorified body could do after the resurrection. Knowing our own resurrected bodies await us helps me make peace with the brokenness of aging.
Paul said “Outwardly, we are wasting away but inwardly, we are being renewed.” If that isn’t a motivation to keep bringing my mind and heart in line with the Lord, then I don’t know what is.
Added to that is the great promise of not just gradual healing, but of a total body transformation. “I am telling you a mystery: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of any eye.”
And together we say, “Maranatha, come quickly Lord Jesus.”
Watch Jesus Film Project’s® “Anticipate the Resurrection” Easter collection with your friends and family this Easter season.
