2 Corinthians 5: 1 – 4 (see also Ro.8:18-27)

Life on earth is temporary (1; see also 2 Peter 1:13). For almost a decade, I worked on a youth camp in the Lake District for ten days each summer. I loved camp. But it was not home. Camp was temporary. As much as I enjoyed it, I was always delighted to drive off the camp site for another year and head in the direction of a hot bath and proper bed! I had a temporary tent on a camp ground in Pardshaw, Cumbria, but I also had a proper house in Lower Wortley, Leeds, and I knew what I preferred. For a short time I just about lived in my ‘wellies’! That had to change; it was intolerable to think that such a state of affairs might persist!!

” …we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven…and we’ll never have to relocate our ”tents” again.” The Message. As Christians, we have a conviction about resurrection life in a resurrected body. We can say ”…we know…” and that knowing has made every Christian funeral I have conducted or attended different to other kinds. We know that life on earth is temporary. ”This world is not my home; I’m just a passin’ through…” as country singer ‘gentleman’ Jim Reeves put it. We also know we have something far better and more solid to come. We are going to exchange the flimsy (”tent”) for the substantial (”building”); we are going to leave behind the ‘‘earthly’’ for the ”eternal”; we will swap the ”mortal” for ”life” (4).

One morning, on our camp site, a herd of cows came through the field. I dread to think what would have happened if they had trodden on the tents (and the children and young people occupying them). As I recall the event this morning, I can only thank God for His miraculous protection at the time. Tents are easily ”destroyed”. It would be a different matter for a cow to walk into a brick-built house.

So, life in this world is temporary, and while we are down here, as much as we may enjoy all the delightful things God so richly provides for us, nothing ever fully satisfies. There is in our hearts an aching; a craving for what is to come. We know deep inside that as good as it gets in this world (and it can be wonderful), there is something more and better. ”Sometimes we can hardly wait to move – and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it. We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies!” The Message.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the Easter message and the glorious light it shines on our way.