A glorious reality
One of my best friends moved today. He’s leaving this area and moving to Tennessee. I think that it’s the right thing for him to do, but that doesn’t make it hurt less.
Have you ever considered how distance is an expression of death to us? Separation, loneliness, these are a foretaste of the final death that awaits this cursed creation.
But consider Jesus. Ever notice how, after His resurrection, He just appeared places. (e.g. Luke 24:36) Locked doors, long distances, none of that seemed to matter. He just wanted to be somewhere, and there He was.
This was an expression of His divinity. As 1 Corinthians 15:20 says, Jesus was the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”. Jesus has the same sort of body that we will have. So I believe that we will also simply…be…places. No more travel times. No more Interstateland. Just the joy of being where you ought to be.
There will never again be a friend who is too far away, for no one will be too far away. Distance will no longer divide us, and we will have an eternity to be together.
Most assuredly, this world is fading away. Grasp it with both hands, and it slips through your fingers, leaving nothing but emptiness. And yet, Jesus has entered this fading world and has planted within it the seeds of something new. Something permanent. Something glorious.
Us.
“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. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:20-23)
