My head gets sunburned. It didn't used to, but now I have to be careful when I go out. If I'm in the sun for more than a few minutes without some sort of hat, I'll probably spend the next few days with an itchy scalp. For some reason, my head burns more easily than it used to.
I'd like to blame it on the ozone layer or global warming or something of the sort, but I know the truth: with every passing year, I've got less hair on the top of my head.
My body is wearing out. There are other signs of this, like my need for reading glasses, and more things seem to show up all the time.
I have what the Bible calls a "perishable body." It will eventually deteriorate. And, as the Bible promises, someday I will get an "imperishable body," one that won't ever wear out. It's the way that God originally wanted things to be, but mankind chose to disobey God, and the consequence of that rebellion was death, the decaying of our bodies.
Did you know that the world around us had the same thing happen to it? Where creation was once in a state of perfection, man's sin affected that as well. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:20-21).
That word "decay" is the same word Paul uses to talk about what happens to our bodies. Just as my body is not the perfect body I will one day have, so our creation is in a state of imperfection. Not because God made it that way, but because our sin affects the world around us.
Today we see earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and floods. One day, all of that will be gone. Creation will be set free from its "futility," from its imperfection.
On that day, we Christians will also be set free. We will be given bodies that will never grow old nor wear out. We'll live in a world that won't experience the disasters we see today.
And my head won't get sunburned anymore!
To be a part of that perfect future, you need to be in a relationship with God. If you need to know more about how to do that, write to me at tarcher@heraldoftruth.org or visit our www.hopeforlife.org website.
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