The resurrection of the body

But the full life of glory in Heaven is still to come.  When Jesus comes again to judge the human race, then our souls will be given new bodies suitable for a full life in the next world. 

The difference between this life and the new life to come may be likened to the life of a caterpillar and that of the butterfly into which it grows.  The sluggish, lowly caterpillar cannot always remain a caterpillar, crawling over the leaves and ground.  The time must come for it to wrap itself up in its chrysalis until its body changes and it emerges at last as a butterfly, full of life and beauty.

Now, just as the butterfly has to beginits life crawling around as a caterpillar before it can live the real life, for which God made it, flying in the sunny air among the flowers; so we have to begin our life in this world before we can live the real life in Heaven for which God has made us.  And then we also shall need new bodies.

When we die our present bodies will crumble to dust and we shall not want them again.  Instead, at the end of the world on the Day of Resurrection or Rising Again, we shall be given a new body altogether.  Many people have got hold of the very odd idea that, on the Day of Resurrection, graves all over the world will open.  This is quite wrong.

What will our resurrection body be like?  It will be something like the body of Jesus on Easter Day.  You remember that his risen body still had the scars in his hands and feet and side.  So our risen body will be in some ways like our present body to look at.  The great difference between it and our present one is that we shall be able to control it and make it do what we want to, instead of the other way round.  It will need neither food nor sleep.  It will never get ill or tired or old.  And we will always be full of sparkling energy and joy (Wisdom 3:7).

So the life which God has prepared for us will be much more real than this one.  This life is not the best God has to give us.  The best is yet to come and it will be wonderful beyond our wildest hopes.