Shortly after the Second World War,... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 Corinthians 5:1

Shortly after the Second World War, my grandfather went through the centre of London still devastated by the bombing. Of one house there remained only some remnants of the ground floor walls with the framework of the front door. The owner had had the words of today's text inscribed over the door: "If our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
What had come of those who had lived there? Had they been able to reach safety early enough, or had they died in the wreckage? My grandfather never discovered, but the verse from the Bible over the door clearly showed that they firmly believed in God and His promises even beyond death.
The "tent", which the apostle Paul means here is our body, the "covering" of our "inner man". When a believer dies, his body "will return to the earth" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). His soul, his personality will be taken to paradise by Jesus (cf. Luke 23:43).
Believers who have fallen asleep in Jesus rest in paradise, awaiting the glorious day when He will reveal His power and awaken them from among the dead. Then He will give them a new, glorified body. It will no longer be a frail, "endangered tent", but an eternally permanent building. All who have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ will thus dwell in "the Father's house" for ever (cf. Philippians 1:23; 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:53-57).
Today's reading: Proverbs 23:1-18