A Prayer about the Aging Body

If the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens 2 Corinthians 5:1

Heavenly Father, 

Yesterday we prayed about finding hope in the losses of aging 

by keeping an eternal perspective. 

Today we acknowledge the reality 

that despite what our culture tries to tell us, 

our bodies are aging, 

every day, 

all the time. 

Again, the apostle Paul helps us 

by naming the reality of physical deterioration, 

calling our bodies “tents.” 

As a tentmaker, Paul knew well the frailty of tents. 

They were made by human hands, 

to be raised and lowered easily. 

They were subject to the terrors of storms 

and could not stand in the face of them. 

Such is the nature of our human body. 

It is vulnerable. It is wasting away.

And yet, Paul claims, there is reason for hope: 

“If the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, 

we have a building from God, 

a house not made with hands, 

eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). 

One day we will receive our resurrection bodies, 

healed and whole. 

Immediately after death, 

we will “be away from the body 

and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8), 

that is, separated from our earthly body. 

But when Jesus returns, “we shall all be changed. 

For this perishable body will put on the imperishable, 

and this mortal body will put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53). 

In that day, we will no longer groan 

with the aches and pains 

of a breaking body. 

In that day, we will no longer groan 

with the deeper sorrow 

of losing family and friends to death. 

In that day, we will see our hope fulfilled, 

the hope of living with you 

and worshiping you forever. 

How we long for that day. 

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58.

*This prayer, like yesterday’s, was based on my article, An Eternal Perspective on the Losses of Aging.