THE WARDROBE
“Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our Heavenly dwelling.”
–2 Corinthians 5:2
“Is this really it?” I whispered to the librarian who checked me through “security” to the C.S. Lewis collection in the Wheaton College library. Before me stood an ornate dark brown wardrobe. Carved by his grandfather more than a century ago, it was a prized piece in the 1973 auction of Lewis’s estate.
This might have been just another old, bulky piece of furniture if Lewis had not written his famed Chronicles of Narnia. In the first book of the fantasy fiction, four children were staying at the country home of a bachelor professor to escape London’s wartime bombing. One boring, rainy day, the children decided to play “hide-and-seek” and the youngest climbed inside the wardrobe. The back of it led her to the frozen land of Narnia.
Was this the wardrobe that inspired Lewis’s imagination? His late brother Warren said it was. Seeing it sparked my imagination about Heaven having a wardrobe, located just inside the entry hall for the coats of invited guests. I thought of the verse, “For this mortal must put on immortality”(1 Cor. 15:53 KJV). In death, we shed our “mortal coats.” We cast off the bodies ruined by disease or injury and immediately go into the presence of the Lord. This is usually called the “intermediate state,” because we won’t get our resurrection bodies until Christ returns to earth.
But being “body-less” won’t impair our joy of Heaven. Besides being with Christ, the Bible says we’ll be among “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” (Heb. 12:22). Can you imagine the dynamism amidst so many joyful beings? The closest we can come on earth might be opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympic games. But those earthly events, despite all the hoopla, are just dots in the infinity of eternity. This is Heaven!
We’ll be with believers of all ages (Heb. 12:23). Maybe, in wonder, we’ll say, “Look, over there--Martin Luther, the Wesley brothers, John Calvin—and D.L. Moody and Augustine and John Wycliffe and Bill Bright and early Christians that Nero threw to the lions--and great-grandma and that older lady from church who poured her love of Jesus into me and….” I think the discoveries will go on and on. We’ll be perfectly conformed to Christ in our spirits (also v. 23). No shame or regrets, just fellowship. No wonder Paul declared that departing to be with Christ “is better by far”(Phil. 1:23).
Then someday, in the glorious climax of history, we’ll get our new “coats”—our new bodies. It will happen in the “twinkling of an eye”(1 Cor. 15:52)--faster than you can blink. Jesus will descend from Heaven “with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God.” It will be sudden and loud and royal! “The dead in Christ will rise first.”(1 Thess. 4:16). The same God who supervised how molecules became the earthly “you” will re-gather those disintegrated components. It doesn’t matter to Him whether you were buried in a coffin or your body destroyed by fire, an explosion, or lost at sea. He will reassemble the new, Heaven-ready “you.” After the dead are raised and given new Heaven-worthy bodies, then the still-living believers will be called up: “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”(v. 17).
Imagine. Someday, life is going on as usual, except the world has gotten unbearably wicked. We’re doing our best to live for Christ. Then suddenly, faster than you can blink, “new” bodies jet out of the earth and sea, and we follow right behind—right into Heaven. No wonder the Bible says, “Encourage each other with these words” (v. 18). This new body will be “us” but it will be something entirely new. It’s like a seed on earth. When we press a pumpkin seed into the soil, it’s just a dried oval of cellulose. It doesn’t produce more dried cellulose ovals. It sends out stout vines and leaves. Then golden blossoms come, wither, and start growing green globes. After several months, these are bright orange pumpkins. So with our earthly bodies:
Sown perishable, raised imperishable.
Sown in dishonor, raised in glory.
Sown in weakness, raised in power.
Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. (1 Cor. 15:42-44)
Hard to wrap your mind around that? Don’t worry. It’s God’s doing. The “new you” He designs will be perfectly equipped for Heaven and, best of all, never die. Maybe we’ll stop, pat this new body all over, and say, “Is this really it?” And it will be.
Prayer: Lord, the promise of “new bodies” helps me look beyond my pain to the wonders of Heaven. Thank You! And, amen!
“Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our Heavenly dwelling.”
–2 Corinthians 5:2
“Is this really it?” I whispered to the librarian who checked me through “security” to the C.S. Lewis collection in the Wheaton College library. Before me stood an ornate dark brown wardrobe. Carved by his grandfather more than a century ago, it was a prized piece in the 1973 auction of Lewis’s estate.
This might have been just another old, bulky piece of furniture if Lewis had not written his famed Chronicles of Narnia. In the first book of the fantasy fiction, four children were staying at the country home of a bachelor professor to escape London’s wartime bombing. One boring, rainy day, the children decided to play “hide-and-seek” and the youngest climbed inside the wardrobe. The back of it led her to the frozen land of Narnia.
Was this the wardrobe that inspired Lewis’s imagination? His late brother Warren said it was. Seeing it sparked my imagination about Heaven having a wardrobe, located just inside the entry hall for the coats of invited guests. I thought of the verse, “For this mortal must put on immortality”(1 Cor. 15:53 KJV). In death, we shed our “mortal coats.” We cast off the bodies ruined by disease or injury and immediately go into the presence of the Lord. This is usually called the “intermediate state,” because we won’t get our resurrection bodies until Christ returns to earth.
But being “body-less” won’t impair our joy of Heaven. Besides being with Christ, the Bible says we’ll be among “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly” (Heb. 12:22). Can you imagine the dynamism amidst so many joyful beings? The closest we can come on earth might be opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympic games. But those earthly events, despite all the hoopla, are just dots in the infinity of eternity. This is Heaven!
We’ll be with believers of all ages (Heb. 12:23). Maybe, in wonder, we’ll say, “Look, over there--Martin Luther, the Wesley brothers, John Calvin—and D.L. Moody and Augustine and John Wycliffe and Bill Bright and early Christians that Nero threw to the lions--and great-grandma and that older lady from church who poured her love of Jesus into me and….” I think the discoveries will go on and on. We’ll be perfectly conformed to Christ in our spirits (also v. 23). No shame or regrets, just fellowship. No wonder Paul declared that departing to be with Christ “is better by far”(Phil. 1:23).
Then someday, in the glorious climax of history, we’ll get our new “coats”—our new bodies. It will happen in the “twinkling of an eye”(1 Cor. 15:52)--faster than you can blink. Jesus will descend from Heaven “with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God.” It will be sudden and loud and royal! “The dead in Christ will rise first.”(1 Thess. 4:16). The same God who supervised how molecules became the earthly “you” will re-gather those disintegrated components. It doesn’t matter to Him whether you were buried in a coffin or your body destroyed by fire, an explosion, or lost at sea. He will reassemble the new, Heaven-ready “you.” After the dead are raised and given new Heaven-worthy bodies, then the still-living believers will be called up: “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”(v. 17).
Imagine. Someday, life is going on as usual, except the world has gotten unbearably wicked. We’re doing our best to live for Christ. Then suddenly, faster than you can blink, “new” bodies jet out of the earth and sea, and we follow right behind—right into Heaven. No wonder the Bible says, “Encourage each other with these words” (v. 18). This new body will be “us” but it will be something entirely new. It’s like a seed on earth. When we press a pumpkin seed into the soil, it’s just a dried oval of cellulose. It doesn’t produce more dried cellulose ovals. It sends out stout vines and leaves. Then golden blossoms come, wither, and start growing green globes. After several months, these are bright orange pumpkins. So with our earthly bodies:
Sown perishable, raised imperishable.
Sown in dishonor, raised in glory.
Sown in weakness, raised in power.
Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. (1 Cor. 15:42-44)
Hard to wrap your mind around that? Don’t worry. It’s God’s doing. The “new you” He designs will be perfectly equipped for Heaven and, best of all, never die. Maybe we’ll stop, pat this new body all over, and say, “Is this really it?” And it will be.
Prayer: Lord, the promise of “new bodies” helps me look beyond my pain to the wonders of Heaven. Thank You! And, amen!
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