But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. ~ Phil. 3:20-21

What would you give for a new body? To be able to run and jump and climb like a seven year old? This summer I’ve been reading Joni Eareckson Tada’s book Heaven: Your Real Home, and this week she’s been focusing on our heavenly bodies that will allow us to do that and more!

I hadn’t really thought of this idea before, and I was finding it hard to wrap my mind around. Then the cicadas came out. The boys are enamored! They love to pick the shells off the tress and fences then walk around the yard with the old bug shells hanging from their shirts. Over and over I have to explain to Ethan that the bugs aren’t really dead. They have flown off to a new life in the trees, and the shells are just what is left behind.

As I was explaining this to him for the 10th time, it occurred to me our bodies are the same. This shell is just a foretaste of the body that will be. It looks similar but our new bodies will be equipped for the new life we will live in heaven, and they will be able to do so much more than we even begin to can image now.

One day when Jesus returns, we will leave these shells behind, but like the cicadas we won’t really die. The shell will appear dead, but we will live in our new bodies. Also just like the cicadas, we lie dormant for a time waiting until our new bodies are ready, waiting until Jesus comes to call us home. But when he does, we will rise and shed this old body to be like him. The sickness and limitations of this body will be gone! Can you imagine?!