"Cleaning My Tent" - 2

"For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:" (2 Corinthians 5:1 & 2) The word 'tabernacle' which Paul uses here is 'skenos', which means a booth, tent, tabernacle. In the New Testament it is used figuratively for this frail and temporary abode of our souls. I can only try and wonder what my New body will be like, the one that is being prepared in Heaven; and as I do, I try and picture this statement which Paul makes about "a house not made with hands", and wonder what that really means. I do not claim to have all the answers, nor do I even claim to have more than One for sure, which is that Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven; but this 'house not made with hands' has my attention right now, and I will try and tell you why. When we look at the creation of man, which is depicted in chapters 1 & 2 of Genesis, there are actually two accounts for man's creation; the first is given in chapter 1:26-30, in which we read, "And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness:" & "So God created man in His Own Image, and in the Image of God created He him, male and female created He them." I can only wonder why He would make something temporary, like this body is, to house something eternal, as He is? However, if you look at the second account of man's creation, which we see in chapter 2:7, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." In this account we are given some really detailed information about the creation of man; for example, the first indication of the temporary house for man, was that God formed man of the dust of the ground, which shows the temporary nature of man's body, because this earthin vessel will return to the dust from which it came; however, and this is the real catchy part, "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life", which shows the frailty of man's breath is in his nostrils, but the life that he has been given comes from God. Now then, when we are looking at the eternal part of man's creation, this is where our view of who we are must change; because, the way I see it, when God said, "Let Us make man in Our Image", that is what He meant to do; however, He is eternal, and to be made in His Image requires an eternal dwelling, not a temporary tent. With that being said, I am going to make a statement here, which you can take it or leave it, but I am going to say it anyways: But the way I see it, God was making a temporary everything, to be able to make us into His Image; which has several basic parts which go beyond temporary; to name just a few: eternal and Holy are the first two that pop up into my mind. The only part that I see from that which is listed in the account of creation, is, "and man became a living soul", which happened when God breathed the "breath of Life" into man's temporary nostrils. Okay, so what the heck is my point in all of this? Well, for starters; that even though this tabernacle is temporary, is it important and must be kept clean, because of what dwells within it; and yet, seeing the temporariness of this tent, we must be reminded of the actual dwelling place that awaits our eternal souls; one which is not formed from the dust of the ground, but is actually made in Heaven, where God dwells, and is made of eternal substances... "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18)