Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15

Today's reading: Exodus 9; 1 Corinthians 15

The more I think about it this morning, the more I think that Paul's analogy from 1 Cor. 15 of our physical bodies being to our heavenly bodies what a seed is to a plant helps explain why it is just so difficult to keep our eyes and affections set on the things that matter most rather than getting bogged down in the mundane that God says doesn't need to be our priority.

I have generally thought it was largely about the seen vs. the unseen; that the physical world and life I interact with are more "real" to me than the spiritual reality around me that I don't tangibly/perceptibly interact with as I go through the day. So the joys, sorrows, excitements, worries, fears, boredoms, etc. of this life are what we fall back to focusing on because, no matter what God has promised of the life to come, it is still the life to come, and this is the life that is now.

But as I've been mulling over Paul's analogy more this morning, I think there is something deeper at play than just the seen/unseen distinction. I think we are dealing with a categorical difference that we just can't sufficiently wrap our minds around to be able to "permanently" realign our thinking from the earthly to the heavenly, leaving us in a place where our only real option is to continually be reminded of, and lean on our faith in, the promises God has made to us of His care for us today and of the life He has waiting for us in eternity.

From acorn to oak tree

Taking Paul's analogy, if you handed me a seed I had never seen before and asked me to describe the plant that would grow from it, I would have absolutely no idea where to start. The plant and its seed are as different from one another as they could be. The acorn, easily crushed under foot or taken and eaten by a squirrel, has nothing but continuity in common with the 100-year-old oak tree that is so large and firmly rooted.

If our bodies, as they are now, are the mere seed of what we will become, it's no wonder that John barely has words to describe the resurrected Jesus when he encounters him on Patmos.

And continuing on with the analogy, a tall, sturdy oak tree would laugh at the fears, worries, and priorities of an acorn. The seed and the tree are just so categorically different.

And as much as I am convinced that there will be a day when I will look back on the 80-100 years I had in this life with the same eyes as the oak tree looks at the acorn, I don’t have a concept for what I will be like in that day, so it is impossible to keep my eyes and affections where they should be.

The difference between us and acorns though is that God has promised us that He is taking us through to the other side of it. That whatever that is going to look like, and whatever our needs, concerns, fears, etc. are here, we have a good and loving father who has promised to provide for us in the here and now, and to prepare a place for us in eternity, so that we can take our eyes off this life and set them on the one to come.

In Christ, we aren't acorns knocked about the forest floor, unsure of whether we will get eaten or pushed into the soil where we can sprout, but we have been plucked up, gently planted in fertile soil, watered and guarded by a faithful gardener who never sleeps, and promised that, just as Jesus was resurrected into a mighty oak (so to speak), so too will we be resurrected into the same.

This is why Jesus can tell us, in Matthew 6, to look at the birds of the air who aren't gathering into barns, and yet God feeds them, and the lilies of the field who aren't sewing clothes, and yet God clothes them in better robes than Solomon, and tell us that we are more important to God than any bird or flower.

It's not just a matter of the seen vs. the unseen, it's that we are seeds. We have the thoughts, fears, affections, and drives of seeds because that is what we are, and we don't yet know just how glorious the plant is going to be. So, until that day when the full glory of God's work in us is revealed, we are left to live by faith, actively turning our eyes to where He says they should be turned, and choosing, minute by minute, whether we are going to ground our hopes and lives in the world we know now, or whether we are going to trust that what God says He is going to deliver is as good as delivered.