6/11/11

Glorious!


What a beautiful sunset!!!  This unique blend of clouds at different altitudes gives the impression of the whole sky being lit up.  How glorious!!!  I can't recall ever seeing this before.  Yet, how many times have I said that on this blog?  How many different things in this world are unique and worthy of recognition?  The apostle Paul says something similar in his first letter to the Corinthians...

1 Corinthians 15:40-58 (WEB)
40) There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.
41) There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42) So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.
43) It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
44) It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
45) So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46) However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.
47) The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
48) As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49) As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.
50) Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
51) Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54) But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55) “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”
56) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57) But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

The leap from considering our glorious surroundings to the glory that awaits us in the next life may seem like a large one at first, but then, all things have a beginning and an end.  Without the hope of something better awaiting us, how depressing this world would be!!!  But thankfully, Jesus has made a way for something better, something more glorious than any sunset could ever be... eternal life!!!  That thought and the expectation of the beauty that awaits in the life beyond makes life more beautiful in the here and now than any sunset, no matter how marvelous.