I’m a morning person. What’s a morning person? It’s someone who is pretty much useless after 9:00 at night. That’s me. But I love getting up early as soon as the sun rises and brightens my room to feel the freshness of the morning air and listen to the birds sing outside my window. They always seem to be happy to be alive.
There is a big bay window in the room where my husband and I sit and watch TV. I enjoy looking out of it any time of year. This particular morning I marveled at how green everything appeared. It seemed only a short time ago that I was watching multi-colored leaves fall to the ground one by one.
We live in Tennessee where we experience all four seasons and, thankfully, winter is short. The last of the leaves are usually gone from the maple and oak trees by the end of November. Except for a winter storm or two, we normally have a fairly mild winter before the buttercups start to show the first signs of spring by popping up sometime in late February. Soon after, all the trees in the area start to bud, the grass turns green, and colorful spring blooms appear on the dogwoods and fruit trees. I’m always thankful that we only have three months of barren trees and brown grass.
Spiritual renewal
The trees get to sleep and rest for three months, and then God renews them by bringing them back to life again where they go to work to produce their beautiful green leaves that provide a beautiful landscape and shade for the hot summer months.
The Lord renews the trees once a year, but our lives are renewed daily!
We know this because the Bible tells us in Corinthians:
Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16
We each experience a slow decaying of our physical bodies as we age. Our looks change over time. Our skin gets wrinkled, our hair thins or turns grey, our bodies change shape and we begin to have less energy. We can slow down this process by eating healthy, exercising, and taking care of our bodies medically, but inevitably the end will come.
No death
But have you noticed that you still feel the same on the inside as you did as a child? That’s because your spirit is renewed every morning!
Our spirit never dies! No matter how our physical body changes, our spirit remains constant. As we age, we are looked at differently, people treat us differently, and we even act differently, but our spirit is always the same because it is eternal! Our inward man feels the same as when we were 10-year-old children. And we don’t have to do anything to make this happen. God does it for us.
Everything in our world is always in need of repair. We paint a deck and in a year or two, we have to do it all over again. We clean our house and it just gets dirty again. We get our hair colored or trimmed and our nails manicured and we have to go back month after month for the same thing. A big portion of our life is spent just keeping everything up. But not so with our spirits. We don’t have to do a thing to keep that part of our being in tip-top shape!
As Christians, this should bring us much comfort. Yes, our earthly bodies will one day die, but we don’t have to fear death because “To be absent from the body is to be home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)
This is the hope and assurance of everyone who has made Jesus the Lord of their life. Every morning when you awaken, give thanks to God not only for the chance to live another day in your earthly body; but also that your eternal spirit has been renewed once again and you’re one day closer to your heavenly home.
In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2
Duking Out Life 