EARTH SUIT vs SPACE SUIT: Increasing Tension

  




As our years accumulate, we experience increasing tension between these two outfits—aspects of our lives. They compete for first place in our attention, and that determines the amount of time we devote in nurturing either one. 

Most of us are obviously more familiar with our “earth suit”, our flesh bodies, since we have been entrusted at least after childhood, with their care and feeding and maintenance. Many in this world know of nothing else beyond their bodies. They have not been told, or they have rejected the truth that each human being also has an immortal, undying soul that will live on eternally elsewhere. They have given little or no thought to the indisputable fact that our “earth suit” is terminal. It will have to be laid aside at some point in earth time.

“All that is within me” (Psalm 103:1) and all the externals that make up my body will wear out, give out, and stop working well as time goes on. Of course, I should do my best to keep my antique organs in working order and do what I can to remedy anything that goes wrong, but I should not be obsessed about it. Too often I focus on my health or the lack thereof. It is hard to accept the decline of my mortal flesh. Nevertheless, that condition is the “new normal” we can all expect as human beings since the fall as a result of sin in the Garden of Eden.

We sometimes feel a tap on our shoulder or a reminder of our mortality at a birthday, or with the onset of an illness, or simply by the turn of a calendar page as our years accumulate. We may wake up one day and take a closer look in the mirror and be shocked to see that time and gravity is taking its toll. 

Seeking more definitive, up to date medical facts, I thought I'd ask my trusty friend Google what is likely to happen or what will inevitably happen in and to my “earth suit” as time marches relentlessly on. I typed into Search: “Expectations of the aging body.” I fully anticipated that this ubiquitous, apparently all-knowing source would give me the straight stuff.

I found more than I bargained for—some startling medical, physical, psychological, and social facts. Some were depressing with their realism yet not totally despairing. Google links offered some worthwhile, practical counsel since there are things I can do to circumvent some of it. There are maintenance procedures to help slow the pace of the slippery slide; if not to fix it, then at least to manage the decline.

Among the titles of articles whose links I followed were: Aging: What to Expect—Mayo Clinic; 8 Areas of Age-Related Change—National Library of Medicine; Healthy, Normal Aging:Physical Changing in Seniors; and (for whom it may concern) What happens to a woman's body as she ages? I encourage you to follow such links and face reality.

We can expect these things to happen to all of us. It is important to determine what you and I can still do about it. The “Serenity Prayer” becomes ever more relevant as we add years. Some things we still can change; increasingly there are more things that we can no longer change but must accept; we need wisdom to know the difference.

For the care and feeding and nurturing of the other part of my life, that part that the mirror can't reveal, I must go to a different source. It's literally above Google's pay grade to help me. Google is limited: it's not omniscient; it doesn't know all; it's not omnipotent, and it doesn't really care about me personally. For sure Google doesn't love me. It can't help me do anything about the shocking information it provides for me.

The True Source I need also begins with “GO”- like GOogle. It is GOD! 

He is the One who blessed human beings, distinct from all the other creatures of His creation, with an undying, incorruptible soul. He provides my “space suit,” one suitable for wherever in space or time God has prepared our eternal dwelling Place.

God, who furnishes us with our “space suit” soul is the only One who can tell each of us uniquely how to prepare his or her eternal soul for the new atmosphere of Heaven. More of my time should be focused on this priority preparation as I advance in years. It is God, the Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent One who can empower my launch into the eternal dimension when the time comes for my “earth suit” to be laid aside.

Actually, it should be no contest on which part of my life I should concentrate. My “earth suit” is temporal, impermanent, of this earth. It will disintegrate and decay in spite of the good care I give it. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18; 5:1, 2) On the contrary, my “space suit” (not literal, of course) is durable and indestructible, although it is invisible.

One size will fit all because its label reads “Designed Exclusively by Jesus,” the Architect and Builder of the Place which He promised to prepare for us who trust in Him. He supplies our long-lasting outfit that will endure the lift-off and its trajectory toward Heaven and never wear out!