A New You

By Cheri Cowell

We talked often in my childhood home of what heaven was going to be like. We spoke of the people we loved who had gone before us and what fun they must be having in the perfect place God had prepared for them. We just knew that my great-grandmother, Mumsey, was in a perfectly outfitted kitchen, baking heavenly treats for the heavenly host. We knew my grandfather was in the woodshop building beautiful pieces of furniture for the many altars in heaven. I now appreciate the gift my parents gave me in providing those happy discussions of heaven.

My father was a diabetic and took insulin shots three times daily from the age of nine. He is now in heaven and I am grateful he no longer suffers that pain because he has a new body and one day I know I will be with him again and will hug him with my new body. What a gift that assurance is.

Paul contrasts our earthly bodies (tents) with our resurrection bodies (eternal house in heaven— heavenly dwelling). Our earthly bodies make us groan, but when we die we will not be naked (without a body). We will have new bodies perfectly suited for an eternal life with Christ. What a hope!

PRAYER: Thank You, God, for the reassurance that those I love are no longer suffering in their earthly bodies, and I ask You to help me stay focused on that promise, that hope, when this body makes me groan.

“For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens. For in this earthly house, we groan, because we desire to put on our heavenly dwellings, if indeed, after we have put on our heavenly house, we will not be found naked,” II Corinthians 5:1-3 NET.

Cheri Cowell was chosen as one of six Christian journalists for an Israeli Ministry of Tourism sponsored tour of the Holy Land in November 2009. To learn more about Cheri’s ministry, visit her website www.CheriCowell.com.