Paul was a maker and mender of tents. Unlike the substantiality of a house, a tent is a very frail structure. In that respect it is quite like this feeble body of ours, which is crushed before the moth.
Our bodies are liable to death from causes so small as to be almost imperceptible: a breath of foul air, a particle of poisonous matter, a trifle, a mere nothing, may end this mortal life. I trust that we duly remember the frailty of our bodies. We are not so foolish as to think that because we are in robust health today, then we must necessarily live to old age. Our crowded cemeteries supply ten thousand arguments why each one of us may expect to die in due time.
We have had abundant evidence among ourselves lately, that those who appear to be the healthiest, are often the first to be swept away by death. At the same time, many old and feeble people linger on among us, whose lives are a continued wonder.
When we think of the frail components which our bodies are made of, then it is not unusual that they should be so soon ruined. Rather, the astonishing thing is that we continue to live.
Some small matter interferes with a valve or an organ, the whole current of life is hindered, and by-and-by death ensues. It is a very delicate process by which our bodies, that are but dust, remain alive. A thousand things can halt that process, and then our dust returns to the ground from which it came.
Paul, therefore, because he saw his earthly tent to be as frail as a bubble, looked forward to it being destroyed, and then abiding in his heavenly dwelling.
Christian! The avalanche of death will soon fall upon each of us! Will you fret over so small a loss? The poor hut of the body will be buried beneath the earth; but as for yourself, you will begin to sing everlasting praises unto Jesus, who rescued you from the eternal damnation of Hell, and raised you into His glorious presence! So, death shall not affect us for the worse, but for the better. The dissolution of our hampering frame shall only bring us into eternal glory!
We are now like birds in an egg: so long as the shell is whole, we are not free. Death breaks the shell! Does the chick lament the dissolution of its shell? I never heard of a fledgling in its nest, pining over its broken shell. Its thoughts run otherwise: to wings, and flight, and sunny skies!
In the same way, our body will soon die. Let it be so; it is fit that it should die. We have been glad for it while we have needed it, and we thank God for the wondrous skill He displayed in the making of it. But when we no longer require it, then we shall escape from it as from a prison and never wish to return to its narrow bounds.
Death will reveal to our wondering eyes, the palace of King Jesus, wherein we shall dwell forever. Therefore, what cause have we to be alarmed at death?
What will it be to open our eyes in Heaven! What a joy to fall asleep on the bed of languishing, and to wake up amid the celestial Hallelujahs!
[Charles H. Spurgeon]
2 Corinthians 5:1 ... For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
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