Perishing

Today, as I read the Ashes to Fire text, John 3, I came to a new understanding of John 3:16, "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." 
At first I was frustrated that the NLT used the word "perish."  I thought it was a concession to the familiarity of the verse in the older more traditional versions.  It feels a little archaic.
Then, I started to wonder if we ever use the word "perish" in our daily life.  Soon I thought of food drives requesting "imperishables" and other foods being "perishable."  I thought of fruit "perishing."  For food, "perishing" basically means going bad, rotting, becoming useless, spoiling.
Then, I realized that is not a bad description of hell or life without God.  Without God's healing grace, our bruises turn into bad spots, and our whole person slowly rots away.  With God's life we are imperishable.  We don't rot and whither.  We are renewed from within.
We are immortal in Christ, also, (as in we will live forever with him), but today I am most impressed with imperishability.  Thank you God for your constant flow of redeeming and healing grace, which restores our bad spots and keeps us living and fresh.