What Matters Most?

“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.

The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;”

I Corinthians 15:42

 

 

What did Jesus look like when he walked the earth for 33 years over 2,000 years ago?

George Eastman wasn’t around to capture a “Kodak moment”.

It would be hundreds of years after Jesus ‘in the flesh’ that DaVinci, Michelangelo and the

other masters of the Renaissance were picking up a paintbrush

so they certainly couldn’t capture His image either.

Maybe there’s some significance to the fact that Jesus’

words were captured and not His image?

Maybe, just maybe, those words are eternal but the body He inhabited was a temporary home.

Why do you suppose our bodies exist?

Our bodies exist to house the spirit of a man, giving our spirit a place to dwell on the earth in order to accomplish God’s purposes.

That is not to say that we ought not to care about our bodies.

After all, God created our bodies out of the dust of the earth and it was part of His good creation.

We are to be good stewards of our bodies but our flesh was never meant to rule our spirit.

“The Word became flesh and dwelled among us…”

He didn’t come as a Super Hero.

He didn’t fly, bend steel in His bare hands or have x-ray vision.

His purpose in coming wasn’t about the flesh.

It was all about restoring what was surrendered in the Garden.

It was all about restoring fellowship with God through the spirit of a man.

His earthly tent, which was created as a dwelling place for His spirit, was crucified on the cross.

He was the innocent Lamb of God who shed His blood for you and me.  

But when He rose from the grave His mortal put on immortality.

The temporary dwelling had served its’ purpose.

You and I will one day trade in the temporal for the eternal.

 What matters most is the spirit of a man.

Are you strengthening and nourishing your spirit?

Are you growing in Him?

Imagine how silly it would be if somehow we had a photograph of Jesus and people had plastic surgery to ‘look more like Him’!

That would be missing the mark to be sure.

But still we can ask the question:

Do you look like Him?

Is His image growing in your spirit?

Do people recognize Him in you?

Certainly food for thought!