As I encounter another birthday this month (forgive me for not saying which one), I am more and more grateful for the Bible’s description of what our heavenly bodies will be like.  I absolutely love God’s assignment for me in Romania for the past twenty-two years – and could only love it more if He’d allow me to do it for another twenty-two years!  What a privilege it has been to be called to love, take care of, nurture and share our Jesus’ love with the ‘least of these’, unwanted, thrown-away, discarded, neglected and abused precious ones who never asked to be banished to the cruel State-run orphanages in Romania.  I repeatedly thank God for choosing me to be His eyes and heart, hands and feet in this service to Him.  No higher calling could I have ever imagined for my life.

But in the past couple of years this assignment, in particular, has gotten consistently more challenging.  With a serious back injury in August, 2020 (during the pandemic) – and then a serious knee injury in October, 2021, both of which weakened the whole body, not just the targeted areas, there have been a couple of times I have seriously thought, “I’m not sure I can do ‘this’ any more”.  And then, He reminds me of II Corinthians 12:9,10  – “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness”.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.    . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong.”   I’m not sure I have the ‘gladly’ part down, or am able to ‘boast in my injuries’, but I have learned from experience that when I feel like giving up, it’s just then that He renews my strength – at least enough to keep me going on.

I have borrowed this theme – ‘Body By God’ from a sermon I heard recently concerning what our future- our Heavenly bodies will be like.  I have heard of ‘Body by Jake’ and ‘Body by Bill Bryson’ – and I’m sure there are a plethora of other ‘Body by (Whomever)’, but no matter our devotion to an exercise regimen, or a diet regimen, our earthly bodies are going to ‘play out’.  My present body will be changed in the twinkling of an eye and is the one – ‘Body By God’ –  that I am going to soooooo love.  No more aches and pains, no more doctors’ visits, no more x-rays, MRI’s or ultrasounds, no more arthritis, kidney or liver diseases, cancer – not even the common cold!

I remember in my 50’s thinking that it just didn’t seem fair that I had to work out twice as hard and twice as much to only feel half as good!  Well, I Corinthians 15.42-44 tells us that our ‘new bodies will be indestructible’.  No amount of working out on this earth is going to keep us in great shape – let alone give us a body that nothing can destroy.  I love what the Scripture shares with us —  “We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” – (I John 3.2)   And can you imagine that “Christ will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like His own.”– Philippians 3.21   ‘We will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father’.  – Matthew 13.43   AND, ‘we will never die anymore’. – Luke 20.36

Make absolutely no mistake about it, as long as I live on this earth, I want to be found faithful in working for my Master, to give everything I have in me to give, to love Him more, and serve Him better.  But on this rather stiff and achy birthday month, I look forward, one day, to receiving my ‘Body By God’!!