New Body and New Teeth

Michael, probably in his forties, sat recently in the break room of the Gulistan Carpet dye house in Wagram, N.C. As I walked by, he opened his mouth and revealed a set of dentures.

“See; I got my new teeth,” he said.

A schoolteacher taught me this rhyme about teeth: “Thirty-two white horses upon a red hill, prancing and dancing, and now they stand still.”

Michael’s 32 horses escaped from his red hills (his gums), and 32 polished artificial ponies replaced them. He had the last of his teeth extracted at Sexton Dental Clinic in Florence, S.C. That 24,000 square foot clinic boasts that patients “come from all over the world and from all walks of life.”

“I had 15 teeth pulled,” Michael said. “I went out of there with nothing but gauze in my mouth. I ate a lot of soup. My mama said she was about 24 when she lost her teeth.”

Months after his teeth-yanking session, Michael drove to Florence to get his dentures.

Ever see someone inspect a horse’s teeth to determine the animal’s worth by roughly figuring its age? According to Wikipedia, a horse's incisors, premolars, and molars, once fully developed, continue to erupt as the grinding surface wears down. A young adult horse has teeth that are 4.5-5 inches long, but the major parts of the crowns remain below the gum-line. The rest of each tooth slowly emerges from the jaw, erupting about 1/8 inch each year. Upon reaching old age, a horse’s crowns are very short, and the teeth are often lost altogether. When a horse is old, he is said to be “getting a little long in the tooth.”

My mother, Eva, often joined her two sisters, Louise and Edna, in visiting their mother’s house. Our first-born, Janelle, was a pre-schooler when she accompanied Mother on one of those visits. Carol and I laughed when Janelle returned and announced, “Aunt Louise has fox teeth!” We figured the ladies had discussed false teeth.

Unlike other parts of our bodies, teeth won’t heal themselves. Baby teeth “come in,” and then we lose them, and permanent teeth (they often aren’t very permanent) appear. As we age, our teeth need fillings and crowns. Like Michael, some of us might leave this world without any natural teeth.

Christians have hope beyond teeth problems, hope beyond old age and hope beyond the grave. Our hope is in Jesus Christ who promises that believers will receive glorified bodies. I think we also will receive glorified teeth. God can construct or reconstruct body parts that might be missing.

Kenneth B Visscher says, “Take great care of your physical body you live in and cherish it, for it is that very same body which the Lord is coming to glorify. This is the same body that is destined for the appearing of Christ when He comes again and fashions your body like unto His body, which was raised from the dead. Right now, your body is corruptible, mortal, but your very body MUST put on incorruption, this mortality MUST put on immortality. It is the body you were born and live in now which will change. Every portion of your cellular structure and every part of your physical makeup will be brought into a holy image of Jesus.”

Our present bodies are “corruptible,” which means they will decay. “Incorruptible” means “not subject to corruption or decay.”

We read in I Corinthians 15:50-57:

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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.

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Christians have the promise of receiving glorified bodies. This promise should comfort us all, especially those who are “getting a little long in the tooth.”