I was having one of those days that could have easily evolved into a full blown pity party. I resolved to count my blessings before all was lost. I'd start from the ground up: "Thank you Lord for my feet, that I have ten toes and ten toe nails...". From there my mind wandered away from my prayers of thanksgiving to thinking about all the various indignities that come with age.

I have a memory of my Grandma sitting in her easy chair holding a magnifying mirror and plucking her whiskers. It was a little bit unsettling for me. I remember feeling sad that she had whiskers. She had a very tough life and it didn't seem fair that on top of all she had to deal with she had to spend so much time tending to her whiskers as well. It didn't seem fair that my other Grandma was seemingly enjoying the whisker-free "Life of Riley" either.

One day, I got up the nerve to ask her why she thought she grew those whiskers.

She answered that all women grow whiskers when they get older.

Privately, I wasn't buying that. As I said, I'd never seen any whiskers on my other Grandma's face. But...if it made her feel better to think all older women had whiskers, then who was I to point out the error of her thinking?

She told me I'd get a chance to experience them myself when I got older.

I didn't believe that for a minute either. I didn't take after that side of the family so I figured I wouldn't grow whiskers like them either.

My friend had gotten a little lax in her "bleaching". Her little son was watching her intently one day and commented that she was "almost a man" with the "mustache" she was growing. He said it like it was something to aspire to...that he'd be very proud of her when she finally achieved her full "man" status.

Fortunately, I know why God made us to deteriorate in all these outrageously ghastly ways: because it makes us long for Heaven and our new glorified bodies all the more. I'm currently reading a wonderful book about Heaven and it's getting me really excited to experience it. In fact, I'm tempted to dash out to the garage and start the car (just kidding, Babe).

The book points out that "God uses suffering and impending death to unfasten us from this earth and to set our minds on what lies ahead" and that "every culture has a God given innate sense of the eternal--that this world is not all there is."

C.S. Lewis observed, "If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither."

The author reminds us that every day 250,000 people either go to Heaven or Hell. "The best of life is a glimpse of Heaven, the worst of life is a glimpse of Hell."

Just think... the best times we've ever had...the most tension free, loving family get togethers, the thrill of new love, the gratefulness and love we feel for our closest friends that sometimes threaten to overwhelm us, the best laughs, the most exciting vacations, the most breathtakingly beautiful sights...all of this, just a foretaste of what Heaven will be like!

Back to counting my blessings (I'll start with my head this time)..."Thank you, Father, that I can CHOOSE what I think about, that I have the ability to 'set my mind on things above' (Col 3:2)and to 'think on things that are pure and lovely' (Phil. 4:6)".

I think the pity party was effectively "rained upon".