I may or may not do Thankful Thursday posts this year. I haven’t decided. Maybe I’ll do them sometimes, when I’ve got something I’m especially thankful for.
Tonight I’ve been thinking about the physical world, and what a good gift it is. I’ve been thinking particularly of our physical bodies. What would be the fun of trudging through the snow if I couldn’t feel it in my feet and legs? Where the joy of a winter walk without cheeks to feel the cold? And the babies—how could I cuddle them without arms and a chest? What if I couldn’t touch their smooth skin and silky hair?
I’m thankful that God gave us bodies. I’m thankful for arms and legs so I can get where I want to go and do what I want to do. I’m thankful for touch so I can know hot and cold, soft and hard, smooth and rough. I’m thankful for taste, so I can experience sweet and sour and spicy. I’m thankful for eyes to see and ears to hear. And for a nose that tell me when the compost needs to be emptied and a diaper needs to be changed.
I could go on and on. Embodied is so much better than disembodied. I’m thankful that God created us with bodies and put us in a physical world. I’m thankful that in eternity, I’ll have a body, an even better one than I have now, and that I’ll live in a physical world, a redeemed and perfected world.
I’m thankful that we grow old and that our physical bodies grow tired. It helps us to know more surely what a gift our bodies are, and it causes us to long for our resurrection bodies.