Good morning. There is a fundamental problem with the world we live in: it doesn’t fit. We get by, for now, but we are far from comfortable. We manage, more or less, but we know that things could be so much better.
Don’t blame the One who made this world in which we struggle daily to fit in. He made it perfectly. He made it perfectly to fit us and to suit us, in all the ways that the world could function. But there is no doubt about it, what was once made perfectly for us is now desperately unfitting. And it wasn’t the world that caused the changes.
We were made to live with God. We were created to enjoy Him, and He us. We were created, and then blessed by the breath of His Spirit, making us eternal beings. That’s right, we were made to never wear out. We were made to never grow old. We were made to never be sick, or tired, or miserable in any way.
We were made to be holy, just as our Creator is holy. We were made in purity, unstained and untarnished in any way. When we were made, everything fit. The world fit us, and we fit the world. Tailor made, a perfect fit, as comfortable as anything could ever be. That is how the world was made and that is how we were made. But the world doesn’t fit us anymore. Sin has caused all that was created to be perfect for us to be broken. It has caused the perfect fit to become rags that chafe, constrict, and stink.
Matthew 25:31-34 reminds us of God’s truth: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
There will be a time when all who have claimed the glory of God through the gracious gift of His Son, Jesus our Christ, will be re-fitted to a new world. True, there will be some, many actually, who will refuse God’s offer of salvation. They will cling to the rags of this world, as ill-fitting as they may be, and pretend that all is well. These are the ones who have given up on a righteous fit and have accepted the miseries of this world as “normal”, “inevitable”, and “unavoidable.”
But for those who have come to realize that this world is a broken, tattered, mess, and who long for the perfect fit we were created to enjoy, there is renewal. For those who will call upon the Name of Jesus and be saved, there is unfettered joy waiting.
For now, we read words of hope, like those shared by the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:18-21 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Our citizenship is in heaven, where we will be transformed, and all will once again be as it was created to be: a perfect fit for God’s loved ones.
Vern