Day 4 of 7, a study on aging without shrinking.
The doctor used a phrase last visit that stuck with me longer than the appointment itself: "normal wear for your age." Normal wear. Like the body's a car with mileage on it, which I suppose it is, and mine has covered a fair number of miles by now.
"For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."
2 Corinthians 5:1
Paul calls the body a tent, which is an even more temporary picture than a car. Tents wear out. They're supposed to. That's not a design flaw; it's what tents are for, shelter for the stretch of the journey they're built for. What he's pointing at isn't the wearing-out tent. It's the eternal house already waiting on the other side of it, not built by hands, not subject to normal wear at all.
My knees can keep wearing normally. That's what tents do. It's not the whole story, and it was never going to be the last address.
Today's Question
How would it change today if you thought of your body as a tent built for this stretch of the journey, not the final home?
A Short Prayer
Lord, thank you for the eternal house waiting for me that no wear can touch. Let me hold this wearing tent a little more loosely today. Amen.
God bless,
Paul