Death or Life?

It seems like everything in life is a picture of something else. Take death, for instance: death is a passing from temporary form to eternal form (when applied to humans). But what events does death represent? There are two that come to mind: 1) Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection and 2) a believers' death to sin and re-birth in Christ at the moment of repentance.

And then what's fascinating is that there are so many things here on earth that represent this death-to-life picture: a child's conception and birth; a seed that is buried in the ground and blossoms into a flower; the water cycle. It's as if God really, really wants us to understand something vitally important to Him.

Which is why the verses in Psalm 19, "The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands; day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world," are absolutely true. God's love and creativity enable Him to be constantly showing us who He is.

While caring for an elderly woman in a nursing home, I was comforted one day as I realized that death is God's merciful way of bringing a person's temporary body to an end. It is now time to move on to the next phase in the story. Of course, humans have such a habit of clinging to the things they least need. That's why dying seems so horrible. And then sin has introduced ugly factors into the equation: fear, sorrow, anger, pain, separation from God.

But God did not intend for death to be this way. And despite the sin that darkens not only our death, but our life here on earth as well, God has written an ending to the story (or maybe just the beginning?) that is a re-birth; a new life that is more beautiful than we can imagine.