If you are an adult and have lived a few years past thirty-five, then you may experience a few aches and pains.  Naturally, the aging process began on the first day of our lives, when God created us and placed us inside our mother’s womb; however, if you are a healthy child, you do not sense the burden of aging until the later years of life.

Now, I don’t know if you enjoy camping as I do, but when my husband and I were first married and in our twenties, we often camped.  Back then, we owned a tent, a fan, a cooler, a lantern, and a couple of sleeping bags.  We had all we needed.

Thus, when we received a vacation of days off work, we gathered our belongings and headed to the campground.  If you have ever tent camped, then you know the site where you pitch your tent is important, for a sloped sight might mean you sleep with the blood rushing either to your feet or to your head.  Also, if you choose a rocky sight, then all night long, you may be fighting against the small stones protruding into your back as you attempt to sleep.  Even the comfort of a sleeping bag is no match for pointed stones.   Yes, tent camping can have so many advantages because you can really pitch a tent anywhere and in a short amount of time.  No electricity is required and no wide back-in space is needed as with those who prefer to camp and sleep inside a travel camper.

Nevertheless, since tent camping does have some disadvantages, my husband and I realized early on that we needed one particular amenity whenever we decided to pitch our tent.  We needed shade from the beating-down heat of the sun.

Consider for a moment: the similarities between a canvas tent we utilize for our holidays away from work & the bodily tent we utilize for our day-to-day living while we live here on earth.

The apostle Paul considered this analogy when he penned his second letter to the believers living in Corinth.

I find this verse quite interesting because when we arrive on this earth, our “earthly tent which is our house” is quite tiny.  Then we begin to eat and grow.  As we do, our tent expands.  Just the other day, a missionary in Zambia spoke about his family’s tent that once seemed large enough was now quite smaller—all due to the growing bodies of his three children.  Yes, our earthly tents do grow as we age, but also true is that our earthly tent decays as we age, and eventually, our tent, “which is our house is torn down.”

This is where we need to plant our minds for a time.

What happens to a person when he dies?

Does he—

1. Return to the earth and that is it—life over forever?
2. Return to the earth and his spirit leaves for its eternal resting place?

To know the answer, we look back to verse one where the apostle Paul writes how “we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  Right here, we know with clarity that heaven exists, and since it does, then the equal truth remains—so does hell exist for those who do not “have a building from God.”

While we are alive on earth, living inside this earthly tent and aging, we will begin to have aches and pains.  The Bible says so!  If we have ever talked with an elderly Christian brother or sister, then we know how they long to go home, “longing to be clothed with [their] dwelling from heaven.”  For the believer, a new body awaits him in heaven, where he will be with the LORD forevermore, serving the LORD, worshipping the LORD, & enjoying the pure pleasure of being in the presence of the LORD.

TRULY, IT WILL BE HEAVENLY!

Nonetheless, until that day (our death day), we groan in this earthly tent.  &

Just as we came into this life naked, we will find ourselves not naked but clothed in our righteous robe—all because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection from the dead!

• JESUS DIED SO WE WON’T HAVE TO DIE & REMAIN DEAD IN ETERNITY!
• JESUS AROSE SO WE CAN HAVE ETERNAL LIFE WITH HIM IN GLORY!

THE TRUTH IS THE TRUTH!

May we, who are Christians, cry out: “Hallelujah!”

&

May we, who are believers in Jesus Christ, cry out:  “Amen!”

This Easter season, I challenge us (you and me) to share our testimony with those who surround us, those who walk “unclothed.”  Even though they may not realize their nakedness, we do.  We know they are destined for a place called hell, a place of great fire and brimstone, a place of torment, a place where the worm never dies, and a place created for Satan and his angels.

May we—be burdened, not just because we are getting older.

BUT

May “we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed,” in the righteous robe that Jesus Christ offers to them when they come to know Him as Savior.

May we not allow those we encounter to WAIT to answer the question:

What Happens When We Die? after they die, for then, IT WILL BE EVERLASTING TOO LATE!