Raised in Glory
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada. Last week, a friend purchased me a little hyacinth bulb. It’s just a tiny shoot of green sticking up out of the brown bulb. Nevertheless, that little shoot is like a promise: it reminds me that heaven is not far off; that soon I will be out of this wheelchair and in a new glorified body! What’s a glorified body going to be like? Well, just try comparing an ugly flower bulb with the fragrant hyacinth that comes forth from it. They’re the same thing, but completely different. 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that, “The body is…sown in dishonor and it is raised in glory.” Just like the flower bulb and the bloom that comes forth from it, you hold within yourself the promise of what your glorified body will be like.
So, if you happen to smell a beautiful flower today, remember that it, too, was once an ordinary, ugly bulb – then praise God that your glorification is not far off at all.
