Our entire existence is an attempt to “clothe” the perishable with the imperishable. To take what is temporal, imperfect, short-sighted and transform it into something eternal.
We are all allotted some amount of perishable resources. Money, influence, even time. The very minutes in the day are here one moment and gone the next. The choices we make are perishable in this way. You can’t make yesterday’s choices today (you can make the same choice again today, but it is a new choice). All that passes through our hands is transitory; it came from somewhere and will be somewhere else after we are gone.
But while we have it, we are invited into an extraordinary opportunity. We are invited to use these temporary resources for eternal reward. We are given the chance to steward these resources toward something that will never fade, the riches of the Kingdom of God, and thereby transforming something temporal into something eternal.
In the grander scheme, our resources are a microcosm of our very self. Jesus conquers death by providing us a way to join Him in His Eternal Kingdom. He invites us to become imperishable by taking the perishable opportunities given to us and stewarding them toward His Eternal Kingdom, by using the fleeting moments of this life and the brief time we have on planet earth to put our trust in Him.
Doing so transforms all of our circumstances, all of our opportunities, and our very existence itself into a participant in the eternal glory of Jesus Christ.