The aging process is humbling. I experienced such humility one day recently at the local recreation center where I swim laps. This particular day I was swimming before my school day started. There was an unfamiliar face welcoming me at the front desk. I handed her my debit card, and she asked if I usually pay two or four dollars. Her question caused me to pause for a moment as I thought of how my mom gets a senior discount on Wednesdays at her favorite grocery store, and I realized – Oh my word, this worker thinks I could be old enough to get a senior discount! I went from feeling good about myself for getting up early to exercise to feeling utterly defeated. Out of curiosity I asked what age one needs to be to get the two dollar price. Her answer – “55.” Granted I was wearing no make-up, but I am 8 years from 55! As much as I wanted to jump across the counter and tackle this lady, I really could not blame her. Who really knows what 40, 45, 55, or any age even looks like anymore?!
Our world assesses people based on what they look like. Yet, Scripture, truth, tells us to regard no one according to the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16). Paul, in this verse, is echoing what the Lord tells his prophet Samuel when he has Samuel choose one of Jesse’s sons to anoint as king of Israel. God says in 1 Samuel 16:7, “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” As an aging woman (at apparently a rapid rate!), these verses bring me peace because when God looks at my heart, he sees the blood of the Lamb who saved it. I am so grateful God looks at my heart because that is what he has redeemed, but what do I do with my aging body?
The reality of aging is this: We age because death was the result of Adam and Eve disobeying God in the Garden of Eden. God kept his word (given in Genesis 2:17) and death did come to all things because of human disobedience, yet God in his goodness and grace allowed Adam and Eve to age. Their spirits and souls instantly felt the effects of sin, but their bodies did not. Their physical death was gradual. Since Adam and Eve are our first parents, we follow the same pattern. Every human is born into sin and the decay of sin has its effects on us from the moment we take our first breath. Eventually, we will begin to physically fall apart.
Paul mentions our bodies in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5. “In this tent [our present bodies] we groan” and are burdened because we long for our heavenly dwelling with our resurrected bodies. I understand this described groaning for what is ahead better and better with each passing year. The featured image for this post captures my wrinkles. No, I was not trying to frighten you on Halloween with the picture. These wrinkles are my reality, but Paul’s encouragement in these verses is to not focus on the external. Our present bodies are decaying due to sin. Instead of focusing on what is decaying, believers are called to be heavenly focused. The eternal, not the earthly, is what is guaranteed. I long for Christ’s return when all things and people who belong to him will be completely restored. My wrinkles, my childbearing body, and my bad back will be restored at Christ’s return. But here is what is glorious – I am also being restored now in my inner being through the work of Christ. At my age (not 55), I wake up and my body hurts from sleeping. I make my way each morning to my bathroom sink, elevating my toes against the sink’s console, and I begin stretching my calves as I brush my teeth. This surrender to my aching body is actually a reminder to the daily surrender God requires of me as his child who he is sanctifying.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
God, through the person of Christ, is sanctifying me. He is causing my old internal self to pass away, and he is making me a new creation in my heart. I am not to regard my aging burdened body because this earthly tent is not where God is doing his work. It is crazy how backwards we have this. Our culture is constantly trying to get us to invest in our earthly tents, but that is not where God is at work. God is at work in our hearts.
Though I am wasting away externally, I am being made new internally. Jesus is making me a new creation now. Jesus’s death and resurrection gives me hope in the midst of my decay. I am to put off the old, decaying sinner self and focus on Jesus, who is now my identity and my righteousness. Though I groan in my present tent, my resurrected eternal body is a guarantee because my Savior resurrected and conquered death. Only a selfless sacrificial Triune God can offer this gift of newness. Only the God of the Bible can offer this hope to our tents and our hearts.