Temporary Kitchen

Since my empty cabinets were taken away last week, and the installation doesn't start until today, I've set up a little makeshift galley downstairs in my laundry room. It's completely adequate for our temporary needs of breakfast and lunch, but we're going out for dinner every night. (I didn't think it would get old this quick, but I'm actually looking forward to cooking again!)

According to our expressed wishes and the images I've compiled in my head and from magazine and internet photos, the new kitchen should be beautiful. But I can't picture it. I only see the brown paper on the floor and painter's tape and boxes of cabinets stacked and ready to install. The sinks should be arriving today and the faucets will follow shortly. Some granite countertops I don't remember will also be a part of the new package. I'm told it will be stunning, but in the meantime, I can only wash a couple of plates at a time and my microwave is on the dusty floor. I just can't imagine what it will look like or feel like in my new space.

Would it surprise you to know I've made a connection to Scripture based on this setup? I didn't think so. Check out what Paul had to say about a temporary situation:

¹Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ²Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, ³because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

⁶Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷We live by faith, not by sight. ⁸We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. ¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:1-10)

In his earlier letter to the same church he writes:

⁵¹Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵²in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 
 ⁵⁵"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58)

We are all living in a temporary kitchen! Even my new kitchen, with all its bells and whistles, will be a temporary one because this earth is not my home. We were made for something so much bigger and better – something our finite minds and vocabularies can’t begin to express.

But meanwhile we groan.

We have unfulfilled longings, but we live by faith.

We are burdened, but we have the deposit of the Holy Spirit, a guarantee of our future, imperishable glory.

My new cabinets, stacked and wrapped, adjacent to the space where they’ll be installed, are my deposit. I’m trusting that there are beautiful, solid, espresso-finished cabinets in there. The guys who unloaded them assured me they were and I’ve peeled back a corner or two of the cardboard to double-check, but I still just have to wait. So it is with the Holy Spirit in us, nudging us toward holiness and service, convicting of sin and reminding us of truth. Oh yeah, we remember. There is more.

So how do we live as if these bodies – these homes, these jobs, this shopping, this eating, this primping and striving and suffering – are temporary? Easter! There was a resurrection and there will be again! The perishable will be raised imperishable and Jesus will come again! Without Christ’s resurrection, there is no hope for us. No hope that we’ll be raised again. No hope that there’s anything better waiting for us than the temporary kitchens we’re living in now.

So in the meantime we make it our goal to please Him. We fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. We stand firm and give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord. We remember the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death. And we lean on the Holy Spirit, our deposit and guarantee of future glory, trusting Him to sanctify us and make us fit for our future homes.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! And that makes all the difference.

• What are you burdened by or longing for? How does the perspective of future glory and the resurrection encourage you?

For further reading:

• John 14:1-4 • 2 Peter 1:12-15

• Philippians 1:20-30 • Revelation 21