Thursday after Exaudi Sunday
Posted on May 16, 2024 by under
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 (NKJV)
5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Devotion
“…that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” One of the most famous episodes of The Twilight Zone was called “Nothing in the Dark.” It depicted an elderly woman who lived alone and was afraid of death. Somehow she was able to tell that death would come in the form of a man, but if she didn’t let him in her house, she would be safe. She had obviously been struggling with who was really just a man and who was Mr. Death. She allows a wounded police officer in as an act of mercy. She nurses him and talks with him for a good while. Toward the end of the episode she realizes he was Death all along. He has her take his hand and says: “You see! No shock, no engulfment, no tearing asunder. What you feared would come like an explosion is like a whisper. What you thought was the end, the beginning.” And then they walked outside hand in hand. The change was imperceptible. Everything was the same, but death was left behind and life went on.
For those in Christ, our reality gently goes on. Our mortality is swallowed up by life. Our loving Savior will not terrify us. He will comfort us.
Collect: Almighty, everlasting God, make us to have always a devout will toward Thee, and to serve Thy Majesty with a pure heart; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
