Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51
At a funeral a number of years ago, I saw a dear old friend who I had not seen in more than 35 years. She has aged gracefully; the years have been kind to her. Her first exclamation on seeing me was, ‘you haven’t changed a bit!’ I told her that I own a mirror and knew better. In all of those years, I have surely changed a great deal in my appearance and probably in most other ways as well. We have all looked at baby pictures of someone who is now an adult and tried to see the adult in the infant face. Over the course of our lifetime, we all change a great deal, and sometimes the changes are unbelievable. If we change so very much here, how much greater will be the change when we are raptured to be in the presence of our Lord!
The next couple of verses in this chapter tell us that one of the great changes will be the replacing of our corruptible bodies with incorruptibility. How wonderful to know that our weak and failing, sickly and suffering frames of aches and agonies are going to be changed into bodies that will never know pain or discomfort of any kind, never decrease in strength or vitality, never be weary or weak. That change goes beyond our ability to understand. I believe in addition to a changed body, we will receive a changed set of emotions. Because all tears are forever wiped away, we will never know disappointment or sorrow, regret or embarrassment. Instead will be a never-ending entering into the delights of the joys of our Saviour’s presence.
But what about others? We know we will be changed, although we often look at Christians around us and wish they were a little different. Maybe one of the ways in which God will change us will be to help us appreciate more the good in others.
If our bodies are going to be changed, that means we will have changed faces. So will we know each other? The good news is that we will not only know the folks we know now, we will also know everybody else, too. We won’t need to be introduced to the apostles, the great heroes of the faith, the founders of our Assemblies; we will know them and their faces will be familiar to us.
Are you getting anxious already to experience the great change that is coming? The Lord’s desire is that the glorious anticipation will be an encouragement to us every day, as we wait for His appearing. -Jim MacIntosh