Raising Mary Rose

The Mary Rose was the jewel in King Henry VIII’s naval crown. Launched in 1511, she sank in the Medway in 1545, along with that monarch's great pride. C.J. Sansom's novel Heartstone (2010) includes an excellent and terrifying description of the disaster. Until 1982, when a team of visionaries and engineers raised her from the depths, she silently lay in the silts. Now, in her own dedicated, air-tight museum, she is displayed for any to come and see, along with coinage, cutlery,  crockery and her crew’s personal effects. Mary Rose was literally resurrected from her watery grave and is now enjoying her second round of life. 

Thankfully, the resurrection of the Christian will be even more impressive. This is not because it will be a one off, like Mary Rose’s, for there shall be billions of resurrections occurring simultaneously. No, it is the end result which shall be much superior. It will not just be the old body dredged up and patched together, dependent on dim light and steel props. Somehow, we shall be perfectly recognisable yet youthful, energetic, wonderfully intelligent and perfectly educated. We shall not be some dug-up corpse leaning on a wall or strapped to a chair; we shall more vivacious, kinetic and dynamic than ever. I am glad they raised the Mary Rose, but I shall be gladder still when the Lord raises me.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:52

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