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TheDiscipleMD

When I first read the words of Paul on heavenly bodies written to the Corinthians, I was young. I didn’t fully understand them. He wrote:

“There  are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.” (1 Corinthians 15)

Now, all these years later I can better understand what he was talking about because I once had a ‘celestial’ body. It was magical! It looked pretty good; it could run and jump with ease. “It was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive. It could leap tall buildings in a single bound!” In short, I felt like Superman. Then something happened to my ‘celestial’ body. It slowly began to lose it’s ability to do all the above things. It slowed down, lost some of it’s strength, and could no longer leap as high. What was once ‘celestial’ had become terrestrial.

So now I get it! This whole ‘bodies’ thing. My today body looks similar to the once ‘celestial’ body of my youth, but it just can’t do the things it used to do. Sadly, I have little control over the whole process of degeneration of my cells. I find myself in a lesser state than I could have ever believed as a young man.

So, if I think about what kind of body I want for the eternities, will I be happy with a forever body that just can’t do everything I want it to do? If not, what I have to ask myself is, “What price do I need to pay in order to inherit a ‘celestial’ body forever.” And more importantly is, “I’m I willing to pay whatever price that is?”

The answer to the question of what price I need to pay is found in the scriptures and the words of modern prophets. Jesus Christ put it in a nutshell for us:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

So every time I get thrown out going from first to third base in a softball game; or I can’t lift something without it hurting, I think, “If only; if only I had that ‘celestial’ body back! And then I ponder about how I am living my life and…what kind of body do I want to have in the eternities!