15 Apr. 2025
We love public holidays, especially the ones that stretch out into the weekend like Good Friday. They provide a much needed breather, especially after a busy school or work week. I remember that hopeful feeling on a Thursday night, excited about enjoying some rest and rejuvenation over the extended weekend. Monday still seemed some time away yet in the twinkling of an eye, Sunday is here with the Monday blues impending. At that point, we are probably asking ourselves, “Where did the time go?”
There are many such twinkling-of-an-eye moments in our lives, such as after a hearty celebration, at the end of a long awaited vacation, the nostalgia that parents feel while watching their children’s growing-up transitions. Or perhaps when you have reached your sunset years and look back in retrospect of how you have spent your life, “What has happened? What have I accomplished? Where did my time go?”
Interestingly, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 talks about one such pivotal moment – Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
The rapture, as Christians believe, refers to a future event when all believers in Christ will be taken up into heaven to be with the Lord. Believers who have died will be resurrected and believers who are still alive will rise to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. All our perishable, decaying earthly bodies will be changed and transformed to imperishable, indestructible heavenly bodies. We will become immortal, given new bodies fit for the climate of heaven and live for eternity with God. What a wonderful hope we have, that one day all our brokenness and suffering will end in newness and glory with Christ!
None of this would be possible if it were not for the events that first took place on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. If the Lord Jesus Christ did not die on the cross for our sins on Good Friday, the dead will remain dead, and the alive will one day join the dead. If the Lord Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave on Easter Sunday, the Christian faith would be futile and the rapture would be null. The essence of Good Friday and Easter Sunday is this: I (Jesus) am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)
John 11:25-26
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
As we continue to experience various twinkling-of-an-eye moments, let us contemplate this one and live out the resurrection of Christ in our daily life as we look forward to our resurrection with Christ in our eternal life.
In the twinkling of an eye,
when the last trumpet sounds,
where, my friend, will you be found?
Written by: MT