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Girlfriends in God - May 18, 2007
Painted On
I hope you are enjoying the Girlfriends in God daily devotions. We (Mary, Sharon, and Gwen) would like to introduce you to some of our special friends. From time-to-time, the Friday devotions will be written by one of our friends in ministry. We call them our "Friday Friends." So grab your Bible and a fresh cup of coffee and drink in the words from our "Friday Friend", Lisa Whittle.
Today’s Truth
Philippians 3:21: “who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
Friend to Friend
On a recent trip to the mall, my three children and I were having a conversation about heaven. My oldest son and I were engaging in a dialogue about what it means to die…more specifically, what it means to the Christian. In the midst of our discussion about how we spend eternity with Christ and how our bodies are put into the ground and then our spirits go to be with Jesus, my youngest son interjected his two cents worth. “Mom, I don’t understand what you mean. You mean that we don’t take our bodies with us when we go to heaven?” I was surprised by his interest and heartened by his comments, as I didn’t realize he was even aware of our conversation. Since his head was buried in his Game Boy, I seriously doubted he was listening.
“That’s right, Micah,” I said. “We don’t take our bodies with us when we go to heaven because we won’t need them there anymore. We will have new bodies in heaven and they will be absolutely perfect.” I glanced in my rearview mirror to see my young son processing his thoughts as he gazed intently out the window. I wasn’t sure what might come next, but I silently prayed that he would understand on some level what I was saying.
Finally, he spoke. “Oh, I think I get it now. You mean that our bodies that we have now are just painted on and won’t last forever.” He said it as a confident statement, rather than a posed question. My heart leapt within me as I sensed the Holy Spirit of God fill the car with His presence. Micah was exactly right. Though completely oblivious to it, he had eloquently verbalized exactly what our temporal bodies on this earth are really all about it.
Though we may not always love what we see when we look in the mirror, when we visualize the picture of a gifted master artist, brushing across His canvas of each of us with strokes of love, we can find a newfound purpose in our physically created self. Armed with the righteous knowledge that we won’t always be stuck with the imperfections we perceive we have, the perspective of our temporary self is sure to change. As Micah so beautifully stated, our bodies are on loan to us – simply painted on and won’t last forever.
Let’s pray
Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that you are the master artist. Thank you for your design of me, and help me to embrace your creation. May I focus on the day this painted on body will be made perfect!
Now it’s your turn
1) Acknowledge and embrace the creation of you. (Psalm 139)
2) Accept flaws in the temporal body you were given, which comes with great limitations. (Philippians 3:21)
3) Anticipate the day you will receive your perfected heavenly “model!” (II Peter 3:13)
More from the Girls
If we get real with ourselves, we will admit that there are things we would all like to change about our physical bodies. We don’t have to love every flaw we have, but they shouldn’t obsess us, either. We are exactly who He created us to be, since He is incapable of making a mistake!
For more on this topic, see…
The 7 Hardest Things God Asks a Woman to Do by Kathie Reimer and Lisa Whittle (Shepherd Press, 2007)
Behind Those Eyes: What’s Really Going on inside the Souls of Women by Lisa Whittle (Thomas Nelson, 2008)
