My 8-year-old grandson and I found empty cicada shells on the patio, split down the back, with the feet still attached to the columns.

“Oh, the poor bug is dead,” he said.

“No, he is still alive,” I told him. “He grew a new shell and slipped out of his old one and left it behind as he flew off on a new adventure.”

I picked the shell off the post and laid it down on the patio table for a lesson on insects.

“See this split on his back? That is where he escaped the old shell.”

“Why did he do that?”

“His old shell was wearing out and getting too tight, like the way you outgrow your clothes, so he grew a new shell while he was still inside the old one. When it was ready, he took off his old shell, like taking off a coat, and left it hanging here on the patio post.”

This explanation seemed to satisfy his curiosity and we went on to other things, but I couldn’t get that shell out of my mind.

Some day my old shell will be worn out and too tight, just like the June bug. When the time has come, my spirit—the real me inside—will step out of my physical body.

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “So also is the resurrection of the dead….. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. ….As we have borne the image of the man of dust, [meaning Adam] we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man [meaning Jesus Christ.] So when ……..this mortal [body] has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’” I Corinthians 15: 42-54 NKJV.  (Inserts added by Lavon for clarity. Read it all for yourself.)

When you see my unoccupied body lying there, you will know it is only my shell. It isn’t me; I am off to a new adventure in my new body.

 

My 8-year-old grandson spent the night last night. While we were clearing off the studio couch where he sleeps, we had to move some stuffed animals. One stuffed bear wore nightclothes and a nightcap and, as we cuddled him, I remembered that he used to have a heart.  I dug it out of the dresser drawer and went to find a 9-volt battery to make it work.

I inserted the red heart complete with battery into the hole in his side, and when my grandson hugged him close to him, the bear’s heart started beating. He came to life with a beating heart; at least, alive as much as a stuffed animal can be.

The soldiers pierced Jesus’ heart, and the blood flowed out of his body, when He hung on the cross at Golgotha. His heart stopped beating until three days later at the precise moment that the Holy Spirit of God brought the power from heaven to resurrect Jesus Christ from the dead.

Romans 8:11 KJV says “If the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”

If I have received Jesus as my Lord and Savior, then the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead does indeed dwell in me. He will quicken or make alive my mortal body, the one made out of flesh and blood. His life flows in my veins renewing my blood, going into each little cell to keep me alive until that day that I receive my new immortal body that will live forever.

I know this old body will completely wear out one day, but until then I’m claiming the promise that the Spirit of God will renew my physical body. I depend on God to give me strength to breathe and move and live every day of my life.

Because I belong to God, one day He will give me an immortal body that will never die, with a heart that will beat forever.

No need for a battery.

 

Years ago, I bought a Tom’s Peanuts glass gallon jar at a garage sale for fifty cents.

I loved that jar. I used it in the kitchen of my mobile home to store stuff in, mainly the crackers, ketchup and salt you get with your hamburger. Coupons went into the jar, as well as rubber bands, bobby pins, and garden seeds. It sat on top of a plant grow light I had over my African violets.

One evening, Grandmother was visiting and as she walked down the hallway, she rested her hand on the grow light fixture for balance. When she did, it slipped to one side and my favorite jar, the Toms Nuts jar, crashed to the floor, breaking into a million pieces.

For one instant, I wanted to scream and cry and yell at her. If it had been one of the kids, I probably would have done just that. But it was Grandmother and she didn’t mean to do it. How can you yell at your dear 83-year-old Grandmother?

So I made a split-second decision and instantly forgave.  I decided that I loved Grandmother more than I loved that jar.  I swept up the pieces and we went on with the evening as though nothing had ever happened. To anyone else, it would have appeared that I didn’t care whether that jar got broken or not, but that wasn’t the truth.

I made an interesting discovery that night, a spiritual truth that I have never forgotten. On the surface it is so simple, but in practice it is a hard truth to live by. If you put this truth into practice in your everyday life, you will never be the same.

Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…….but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…..For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

People are more important than things.

By the way, after this devotional was printed the first time, I received a package in the mail, from my best friend from high school days, containing a Tom’s Nuts jar.

Menu

Hors d’ouevres

 Olives, bread with dipping olive oil & spices, grapes

Entreè

Quail & Fish 

seasoned with Sea of Galilee sea salt

Red lentils

Manna

  Five loaves of bread

Dessert

Milk & honey custard, honeycomb, curds & whey

Drinks

Grape juice, sparkling water, fresh water turned into wine

New wine in new wineskins

Final course

Figs, dates, pomegranates, sharp cheese with unleavened crackers